Megaman Double Network Epilogue: Soul Eclipse
by Ghost 501
Summary: Four years is a long time to have tormenting demon awake and constantly trying to take over your body. It's even harder to remember that hope arguably one of the most powerful tools on the planet. But as time passes and agitation builds, people begin to get caught in the crossfire. And with all the chaos around her, how will Pixel be able to stop Dragar from destroying the Net?
1. Note

So, I could sit here and just let you go ahead and read Chapter 1…but I'm not that type of guy! This series is and has been successful because of the fans. As some of you know, when I first came to FFN, I was a Percy Jackson writer as well as a BN writer. However, I didn't feel the same sense of community as I do here with the BN/SF people here (couple bust stories and just overall falling very much out of love with the series caused me to leave the fan base). So then, I made my way here and have been very happy ever since.

Why? Well, because of all the internet friends I've made on here. While I have talked to quite a few people on this site, these six are people who I actually have made habit of talking to. While five of the people here are writers of BN, they all have my respect. I say give their stuff a look. So without further ado, time to give thanks to people who I call my internet friends. (This is in fact organized by first interactions; earliest to latest)

* * *

**Gavzilla: First PM: Aug 22nd, 2013**

Whoa…it's been like…over a year and a half since we first started talking. Gav was the first BN writer I had actually PMed on this site and, along with True, was one of the first members to join the staff of my Megaman Battle Network Community (which now also accommodates Starforce). We went back and forth on randomness which ranged from his stories to my one shots to random fights using Megaman Bosses and at one time the PowerPuff Girls came into the picture… Anypanel, if you want to see a complete story about how our paths crossed for DN1, Gav has already taken the liberty of writing that story on his profile some time back. So to save you a little time I'll skip that tale. However if I'm indebted to anyone for this series success in terms of plot, it's Gav. Thanks man, you're awesome and if you ever need someone to BETA for ya, you already know that I don't mind.

**True-InTha-Blue: **First PM: Sept 29th, 2013****

True, and ShadowDusk, are my Poke Pals on Twitter. However, he's also one of the first writers that I read on this site with his story _The Love Of Many_. Along with a few other authors, like Gavzilla and GuardianNature2012, his stuff is very interesting and you can tell that it made an impact on my stuff because some of the ideas he's written are accredited and used in my stories! Anypanel, this guy is amazing. His stuff is awesome and unique in the fact that he's actually got a special style of showing navi culture and things of that nature. He's also the only person I know who loves a shiny Spinda. You still owe me a Pokemon battle at some time man! Thanks a million! Maybe Jirachi will finally grant you your wish!

**terratasha: **First PM: Oct 29th, 2013****

I give respect to terra for a plethora of reasons, one being the fact that's she's made a anime Megaman BN series that I don't immediately rage quit on even with the incorporation of Cross Fusion (Megaman NT Warrior: Resurrection). She's a great person and great writer. Plus, she's my go to person on the site to talk about _How To Train Your Dragon_ and a whole list of other things. Though she's been on this site a lot longer than me, it must have been during the period when I wasn't reading FFN for a while because to be honest I never saw her stuff until I was digging around in the archives sometime in 2013 but I'm happy I did. She is also a major reason why I ended up changing Roll and Megaman's body types…especially for the DNEs. She wasn't wrong when she mentioned that if you thought bout it, things might be a _tad _weird in your head. She's also caught a few hiccups that both Gav and I missed. So again, thanks terra!

**BalanceM88: **First PM: Nov 26th, 2013****

For those who don't know, Balance goes as far back as the first DN story. If you look under the reviews, she's Empress Roll there. Balance's like 5x times better than me in terms of BN/NT Warrior knowledge, she's also an Ace detective (at least I hope I'm not that predictable…hehehe…). She's made several guesses that are close to or on the mark and if I give her clues, she normally figures it out. She's also my battle chip consultant when I can't remember just what exactly a chip does (because we all know how descriptive the games are at times). and has helped me a bunch of times while writing this story. But anypanel, she's a great writer and person to talk to! I will also say that she's my next co-author. Yep, sometime during summer 2014, I came up with an idea that I remembered ran somewhat similar to one of Balance's story ideas. And soon enough, we planned a Battle Network series which will come out some time after DN5 is over. And well, that's all you'll hear of that for a little while (we hope you join us for it!). With that, thanks for everything Balance!

**Animegirl257: **First PM: Mar 9th, 2014****

Ani gets a couple of awards for a couple of reasons. She's made I believe the longest SF story on the block but also she's the first person to call me Casper (go figure). Anypanel, like Shadow and True, she's also another person I talk Pokemon with, but also general animes as well. That and like Gav's, our conversations have pretty much gone straight to chaos at times. Also, she's the first who's pretty much told me to lay off the bad puns since I've been on FFN. Anypanel, I've at least had a blast talking to her about stories, plots, and just general mayhem that we all like to call fanficiton. So anypanel, thanks for being awesome! ( dailywth wp-content / uploads / 2013 / 10 / dwth_funny_puns_intended-2 . jpg) ...Don't mind me...I'm just going to leave that there.

**ShadowDusk94: First Tweet: April 30th, 2014**

Shadow is my other Poke pal on Twitter as well as a long time DN fan (and all my other stuff…so a Ghost501 FFN fan?). I'm pretty sure he's read either all or a majority of my BN stuff. Anyway, I can't honestly thank him enough for all the support and back and forth pretty much talking about Pokemon with True! Thanks again, man!

* * *

And that's about it. Of course, thanks to all DN fans and I hope this series has been as much fun for you as it has been for me. And without further ado…_Soul Eclipse_ time everyone! Though I do wonder...how bout once a week uploads again? Those are fun right? XD

Note, thanks to Balance who sent me a whole list of chips back in DN4. I didn't use all of em, but some chips were inspired or directly from that list and I neglected to say anything in DN4 since I forgot to write it in any of the author notes... XP Sorry!


	2. Chapter 1

Ghost: Hey everyone! Bet you're surprised I got this done when I did! Well, be happy. I worked my tail of trying to finish this story before my semester started and for a while I didn't think I would make it to my own deadline, but I did. So, why should you all be happy? Well, I've decided not to put you guys through an entire emotion ringer that would feature people just crying for every single chapter. Alright, mainly its because at this point four years have passed since the events of _Soul Awakening_ and I didn't see a point in going through each year. But of course, I'm still going to make someone cry. What? I'm a tragedy writer can't help myself. XD

Anyway, I'm going to clear something up. I had thought that several more characters would have been involved in the plot. But after doing my outline, _Soul Eclipse _lured me into a back room, beat the crap out of me, and said we're doing things my way. So _Soul Eclipse_ wrote itself over being that instead of a huge adventure...this story takes place in a single day/day and a half. Which...huh...I guess this makes _Soul Eclipse_ the longest day I've ever written for the DN by far.

Anypanel, I hope you all enjoy this little show. The first and last adventure into the Double Network epilogue world. I'm closing the book on epilogues after this one. I think it wraps itself up nicely. Have fun! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!

* * *

**Chapter 1 - What Am I?**

The sound of an PET alarm going off managed to stir the brunette girl out of her sleep. The fourteen year old merely tried to turn off and put a pillow over her head, "Pixel...turn it off." She said sleepily. Why she did she set her alarm clock and hour earlier than what it needed to be? Or right….she would never get up if she didn't.

The girl groaned as her plea was unheard and the beeping continued. The young NetOp merely rolled over and slowly got out of her bed. She hated winter mornings, except Christmas which was only about a month away. It was always dark whenever she got up and for a person like her, she needed the sun to come out to remind her that it was day time and that she shouldn't be plotting ways to get back to sleep.

"Pixel, you awake?" Kei Hikari asked as she walked over to her desk, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. The brunette sighed as she say that the device was empty. She looked to the side and noticed that her copybot wasn't in the room; her navi was gone. Pixel probably had another nightmare again. It was the only reason she would run off this early in the morning.

Ever since Dark Pixel really had awakened four years ago, Pixel had periods when she would go without sleeping merely because of the fear that the dark soul would give her a nightmare. What was worse was that the dark spirit would actually toy with her and giver her times when she would see nothing at all. Heck, Pixel even had good dreams at times too. But then all it would take is one night and she would just have all of it ripped away from underneath her. Kei sometimes wonder why in fact her cousin hadn't gone insane because of it all.

It had been rough on everyone, especially her. The magenta navi would spend long periods of time away from the family, normally this would be particularly often after she had a nightmare. In the beginning, it wasn't so bad and she would actually talk to her family every once in a while about what was going on. However as more time passed, she felt like she was nothing more than a weapon just waiting to be activated. Or even that maybe Dark Roll and Dark Hub, whenever the two actually became active, were right to be afraid of her.

But those moments were became more and more rare as the attempts to get rid of Dark Pixel's hold over her failed. It had gotten to the point where no one talked about saving her anymore anymore just to avoid upsetting the magenta navi. She wasn't stupid and had even called them out on it a few times when they had tried to tell her that it would all be okay. No one had ever heard her yell so angrily at someone until that summer. It was just safer to not mention it.

At one point, Kei had overheard Dad and Uncle Hub talking one night last month about locking her PET to make sure that Pixel wouldn't get out to do something crazy. However, Mom and Aunt Roll stopped them by telling them that holding her in her PET would only make her feel like an animal. And with Dark Pixel already breathing down her neck, she didn't need to feel any worse than she already did. And though no one said it, there was the problem that anything Pixel could have done to herself outside the PET, she could have done inside it as well.

Kei slipped on a jacket as she walked out of her room and into the Hikari's living room. No one was up, meaning that no one would have seen Pixel leaving either. The magenta navi had become accustomed to moving a bit like a zombie like after a nightmare. In the beginning, she would have days when she would end up in her parents' room. But those were the days of old as she now tried to deal with things herself. Her new method had her normally walking around ACDC town until the copybot ran out of battery, which now could pretty much be the whole day on a full charge.

She wrote her parents a note, left it on the fridge, and headed outside into the bitter cold known as ACDC December mornings. Snow had fallen on the ground the night before, but it wouldn't have been enough in order to get her out of school this morning unfortunately. The girl ran back in for her scarf that her mom had made her and then resumed her journey to find Pixel.

The town had changed quite a bit over the years. Mr. Dex's house had been sold some time back after he had become mayor. She didn't know the people who lived in it now, but they seemed nice. In addition to his, the huge house that had once been on the left side of ACDC had also undergone changes. Well, more like it was gone now and had been converted to a better park than the one that had once been outside of her house.

Kei smiled as she remembered the sending off party Ms. Yai had put on. Mom had been one of her best friends and Dad had been a good friend to her too, so of course the Hikaris had been invited to the festivities. It had been a summer right and of course was much warmer than it was now. Since she had been the youngest at the party, she and Pixel had decided to go walk around the huge mansion out of boredom and ended up getting lost for a while.

Luckily, they had been found by Glyde before anyone had to launch a search party for them. Which, she had later learned, no one was going to do since they had only been lost for about ten minutes. It had been a pretty interesting adventure for the then seven year old, but it was one of the moments where she could remember seeing her cousin smile. Pixel had always been happy and it was hard not to forget that. At times, her adventurous style would get the whole group of Hikari children in trouble with both of their parents.

But now, it was lucky if you could even get her to frown. She had just stopped showing emotion. She wasn't happy. Nor sad. Not even angry. Either that or she learned to be expressive without showing an expression. It was almost alien really. Like someone had ripped out her soul and left her frame in her place. If someone backed her into a corner, she would just drudge on as lifeless as she always had. She had been that way for the last few months. That last attempt had been the last straw for her it seemed. Kei was never told the specifics of it, but Pixel just seemed to...stop after that. That angry screaming had been the last time she ever heard her genuinely express herself. Everything else had been a farce just to get her family of her back.

* * *

"_Pixel, you know you should at least talk to Mom or something. Brooding here can't be good for you," Stream said as he looked at his sister. The girl had been fixing files for Kei for the past few hours. The brunette girl was beginning to think that she was purposely misplacing some of them in order to make her task as endless as possible._

_Kei shook her head, "Stream, maybe not now. I know you're trying to help, but she just doesn't want to talk to anyone right now." Aunt Roll and Uncle Hub had already tried and they could barely even get anything more than five words out of her. At least, that's what she overheard when she and Mom had been talking earlier._

_The cyan navi looked sternly at her, "I get that, but she can't keep going like this! Every time she just gets worse and more closed off! Pretty soon, she probably just stop talking! Then what do we do? It's better if she just gets it off her chest so that she can at least let it out. There are seven other people in this house, don't tell me she can't talk to any of them!"_

_Kei gave his a glare, "So what! If she doesn't want to talk, then she'll talk on her own time! Making her do something she doesn't want to is not going to help her. You're going to make things worse!" She understood where he was coming from, but unlike him, she could see how things could go wrong very quickly._

"_But what if she decides to not talk! Then she's just going to keep all of that emotion bottled up!" Stream turned back to the magenta navi, not noticing that her focus on her task seemed to waver, "Even if it's anger, you've got to let it out."_

"_You'd like that wouldn't you?" Pixel said, trying to bite her tongue. But she wasn't very much in control of her. And in the back of her head, she could hear someone laughing. And the worse part was that she was right to laugh, "You know something, Mr. Know-It-All! I've tried talking. I've tried waiting. But you want to know where the hell that got me?"_

_Her green eyes seem to blaze as she got in her brother's face, "I'll tell you since you're so interesting in hearing! The only place I've gone to for the past four years is hell! The first year hurt. She kept sapping everything I had from me. It took forever before I felt like I could actually operate without feeling like I was going to collapse! And then second year she started yapping. She just wouldn't leave me alone!_

"_So what did I do? I tried talking to Mom and Dad. And you want to know something. No matter how many times I went to them, she always found some way to make her words hurt just as much as the first time. That's when I realized it was pointless to talk to them! And just when I was ready to stop talking to everyone, they said they found a way. Of course, it didn't work._

"_Another year and the same thing goes on and on. More talking. More ignoring. Another chance at an answer gone bust. Until we came to today. You want to know what happens to me now? I get nightmares imaging so many things, including how to delete you. And once again, my "only hope" turns out to be nothing but a lie!" Pixel yelled. Stream was trying to keep a straight face knowing that it was just a reaction, but that statement had unnerved him sort of._

"_But you wouldn't have to worry about that because you don't have a dark soul! Little Mr. Science Prodigy! Well, why don't you come up with a way to fix me that'll only blow up spectacularly in my face huh? What will your attempt do to me this time? Maybe yours will actually merge her even more with me so that I'll really start losing my mind!" Pixel roared as her insufferable laughing continued._

_Stream looked away from her for a brief moment before meeting his sister's eyes again. I had taken him a second to collect himself, but he had noticed one thing, "What's her name, Pixel?"_

_The magenta navi blinked before glaring, "You know what her name is."_

"_You're afraid of her. Aren't you?" Stream pressed. She was avoiding her problem even to the point of not addressing it by her name. Or was it that she was already having trouble differentiating Dragar with herself._

"_I'm not afraid of her. I just don't think she needs to be happy that I still remember it." She growled._

"_Uh….maybe you two should stop," Kei said meekly, noticing that both navis seemed to be getting more and more ready for a fight between them._

_Stream merely narrowed his eyes at her, "Then say her name."_

"_Didn't you hear me or are there bug frags in your ears? I already said I don't need to say it!" Pixel barked back._

_Stream shook his head. Something told him that the nightmares wasn't in fact the worst thing that had happened over the years and to be honest, he was actually scared to find out what it could be, "You're as naive as ever if you think ignoring Dragar is going to help."_

'_**Oh. I love the tension in this air!**'_ _A voice said in her head, finally catching her breath, "It's better than talking to you or anyone else is!" Pixel screamed as pushed Stream away from her, "You know what. Get out! Just get out of my room!"_

"_You're not solving anything! I'm just trying to help!" Stream argued back._

_Then faster than anyone could process, Pixel grabbed him by the neck. Her eyes were a strange mix of both green and red, _**"**_**I said get out!"**_ _However, a second later, her eyes returned to their normal emerald color and she quickly dropped him. She stared at her hands before she yelled out in a mix of emotions, "You see what you made me do! Get out! I hate you! Just get the hell out!" She yelled as she dropped to her knees and started crying._

_Stream looked on from his spot while Kei shot him a disapproving look. Silently, he left her room. Though he doubted he heard him apologize as he departed._

* * *

Kei missed her. She missed Pixel a lot. And although she called this navi by her name, she never really felt like she was ever herself. She prayed every night that her dad and uncle would come up with something to change this. But she knew things were hard for them at work. Apparently, Pixel's outbreak had caused some...distress among some of their bosses at SciLab had been expressed to the two Hikari men. As far as the young girl could tell, there was nothing serious going on but then again why would her dad tell her if anything was wrong.

The young girl shook her head as she continued looking for her navi. She wouldn't have left town; she was normally pretty timid about walking into new territory or highly populated places without her family close by her. At least, she had never attempted to yet. It was sometimes hard to read her whenever she got into this state. Let's see….at her lowest point, she tried to find something….beautiful. She would be out trying to find something that would at least give her something to look at to take her mind off of things. If even for a couple of moments. As the brunette girl made another right, she noticed that the sun was coming up.

Hmm...if she was waiting all this time for sunrise, she'd probably be some place higher up to see it. But she wouldn't be on any of the house's roofs. But what about a business? They had ladders up to their ceilings. And there was one place still in business around the neighborhood. The brunette started to run for Higsby's. It was the only place she could think of that Pixel would be.

* * *

Sure enough, when she had arrived the sun was just starting to show its glorious colors. The light scattered off the snowy ground causing everything to look even more so spectacular that it did. On the top of the roof sat a "girl" holding her knees to her chest, staring out at the scene. Her dirty blonde hair went to the middle of her back but was kept in place by a red headband. She was only wearing a jeans and a black t-shirt, but she wouldn't have felt the cold nearly as bad as a human did.

Kei walked over to the ladder and climbed while Pixel sat there unmoving. If the magenta navi had heard her, she hadn't bother to show any notice of it. However as Kei started to get closer to the navi, Pixel just pulled her feet in more. Kei frowned; she wasn't going to talk just like Stream said she would do. The brunette merely took a seat next to the blonde as they both took note of the sunrise, which was now in full force. The brunette would probably have to start to get ready for school soon but that could wait until she was certain that Pixel was as okay as she could get.

As the sunrise ended, Kei turned to her navi, her cousin, "You always manage to find the most amazing things, you know that?" She said as the other female sniffed. Kei hadn't heard her crying earlier, but perhaps she had stopped by the time she had gotten there. After being in a concerned family of eight (her included), the magenta navi had mastered the art of quiet crying. It was one of the few times that anyone could confirm that she still knew how to display emotions beyond that mask she put on everyday.

Kei sighed as the navi seemed unrelenting to even move from her location, "Pixel...why don't we go back home? We could sneak in through the back window and that way no one would know we ever left."

"You wrote a note…." Pixel said, lifelessly. Kei always wrote a note to Mom whenever she was leaving the house by herself, especially after she started leaving early in the morning to find Pixel around the neighborhood. Aunt Roll nor Uncle Hub went after her because of one reason, Dark Hub and Dark Roll.

The dark souls of the eldest cyber Hikaris and the youngest one were at war with each other. Sometimes Dark Hub or Dark Roll tried to break out in an attempt to end a dangerous game; something that neither parents would allow. Since Dark Pixel would be particularly active at the time after Pixel's nightmares, unfortunately, Uncle Hub and Aunt Roll were not in fact the safest to be around, especially as the years went by. The dark souls had gone from tolerating Dark Pixel's presence to just downright hating it. Apparently as Pixel grew older, so Dark Pixel grew more powerful since she now had more energy to siphon from her lighter half. And unfortunately, Pixel had a harder time opening up to Mom, Dad, Stream, or Patch, leaving it up to Kei to bring her home.

"Well….uh…." She stammered, unsure of what to say. Pixel barely confided in anyone anymore. It had started after the third attempt to reduce Dark Pixel's power over her. The experiment failed and she had almost turned right then and there. Since that point, her trust in people had dropped and only slightly in the family. She knew that her dad and uncle would never try to hurt her on purpose. It was everyone else she was paranoid of, probably due to the dark soul's meddling as well.

The only way they could get her to open up was her journal that Aunt Roll gave to her. It was the sole possession she had that she ever got defensive over. She didn't let anyone see it. Not Aunt Roll. Not Uncle Hub. Not Stream, or Dad, or Mom, or Patch. Not even her. Very rarely would anyone ever get a fraction of a glimpse into her head. And that was the way Pixel liked to keep it. Her family cared too much to force her and one time when someone tried to take it from her, Pixel had almost lost it. It was almost like she hoped that the way to get rid of Dark Pixel was to write down the dreams in hope that one day she could delete the stupid thing and learn that all it was was a story she had imagined and written.

Pixel's eyes flashed over to her NetOp. Besides Mom, Kei was the only person that Pixel felt comfortable talking to. She didn't really know how to talk to Stream anymore and if she talked to her dad or uncle, it felt like they were also taking notes on her to figure out bugs in whatever they would try next to help her. And after this morning, well….Pixel wasn't quite sure how much more she could shut out before she lost it. "Kei…" the navi's voice broke the awkward silence between the two.

"Yeah?" Kei answered quickly, relieved and scared. Normally, Pixel didn't talk back when she was like this. She would just listen and move, never talking until around lunch on the days she actually came with her to school.

Pixel paused before speaking. She knew she was going to worry her, but she couldn't take it anymore, "You...you think I'm...a burden? Not just to you...but to the whole family? I-I can't fight viruses anymore without her getting in my head. I'm not safe to be around. I'm just a bomb waiting to go off. And no matter what anyone does, I'm just going to be the same…."

Kei shook her head hard, grabbing the navi by the shoulders, "No! You're wrong! You're listening to her again! You're not a burden. We all love you, Pixel! None of this is your fault. It's her that's making you feel this way. It's her that causes you to freak out whenever Dad and Uncle Hub try to help you!" The teenager looked into Pixel's green eyes with her own brown ones. That's when Kei realized that Pixel was only a few more steps away from the ledge. If she didn't say something….

Pixel looked away, "But what if she's right? The only place I feel like I'm even in a little bit of control is this copybot because I know I can't use my powers here. But whenever I have to return the Net…" she trailed off. It was impractical to raise the copybot's battery life anymore that it already was. The machine couldn't handle a bigger battery. Hers was already customized to allow her an twelve hour period of movement.

"We'll find a way, Pixel. Dad and Uncle-" Kei started only to be cut off.

"BUT THEY HAVEN'T!" Pixel yelled out, startling her NetOp. The "girl" stared bitterly at her, "They haven't in four years and every time they try she gets more powerful. It's like I'm destined to lose to her. It only makes me wonder how long it is before I'm no longer safe in the copybot."

The navi looked up at the sun, "I just want this to end. I'm tired of being the reason everyone is so sad. I'm tired of being like this. But every time I try, she's always there to remind me why I can't. I'm not allowed to be anything anymore. I've got no powers, no emotions. I've got nothing but some limited amount of time before she takes over again! Hrrgg." The "girl" doubled over and grabbed her sides. She could almost feel like someone had her foot on her side and was just pressing down.

'_**Who told you you were safe from me here? I've just never had a reason to mess with you here. And I still see none now. Just don't forget that, Pixel,'**_ Dragar growled at her. Pixel's eyes widened as she stared into the dark soul's blood red eyes as she smirked. She wasn't lying. Even her she could create as much havoc as a normal human could with a blink of her eye.

"Pixel!" The brunette scrambled over to her side as Dark Pixel disappeared from Pixel's view. The other "girl" slowly pulled back her arms and tried to get control of herself. Her breathing was out of control and her mind was still panicky. She had never been safe from her this whole time. Even her safe haven had been just a dream used to make her think that there was still a hope for her.

Before Pixel could say anything to Kei, her cousin grabbed her and held onto her, "Kei, get off of me." The navi said in a quiet but serious voice. She couldn't feel Dark Pixel anymore, which was a good thing, but what if she came out just to hurt Kei? If something happened to her (or any of her family for that matter), she wasn't sure if she could live with herself.

"No! I'm not letting go! It's not over Pixel. None of us are going to give up on you! But we can only help you if you still believe in yourself. You...you can't go. I won't let you! Please Pixel, promise me you won't give up!" Kei said, getting more emotional as she held her cousin tighter. Pixel had stop breathing a few seconds ago. Granted, she didn't need to but it had just seemed so wrong for her to be in that much pain and staring fearfully into the air.

"Kei….I can't….I…." Pixel started but Kei wouldn't allow it. She wanted her to let go and allow her to fall, but even more so she just wished for the girl to do exactly what she was doing. When she was at her worst, sometimes she just forgot why she bothered fighting Dark Pixel and here her cousin was trying to reminder her why.

"No! Promise me! Promise that you won't give up on yourself! I can't stand watching you like this. None of us can! You didn't ask for this and I know you've been through a lot but none of this is your fault. I know it's hard for you to show emotion anymore without her talking, but maybe you could just smile every once in a while? That would make us happy. I bet it would make you happy too." Kei said.

Pixel shook her head, "Kei, a promise won't change anything." The navi spoke in a dead tone. She had a lot of promises made to her that had never come true yet. What more was this one that she was being forced to make to Kei would do?

"Maybe not now, but I believe that you can beat her. That's the reason you've held out for so long. You're stronger than her, Pixel. I know you are. You just don't think you are. That's why I want you to promise! You don't go back on your word; I know you don't." The brunette pleaded with her.

Pixel took a long sigh, though on the inside a whirlwind was blowing. How was she lucky enough to have someone who was making her promise something like this? It was almost as if Kei was choosing to avoid fate and inviting her to make her own. But that wasn't possible right? Fate was fate there was no denying that. But what if it was? What if she did have a chance and her own depressed thoughts were making her weak? The magenta navi had pretty much given up hope for herself as the nightmares continued, the attempts to free her failed, and _she _kept on appearing before her. But….was Kei offering something that could fix all this? She wasn't sure if she was willing to let herself go through another attempt to free her from her condemned fate.

But Kei wouldn't hurt her right? Well her uncle and father never would either, but yet they still did. Still, she couldn't leave Kei like this. She wouldn't let go until she did. And maybe just maybe, this would at least buy her some time. She hadn't been totally accepting of her fate, but even this seemed quite strange.

This would easily be her worst mistake ever but if it would get her to stop crying, "I'm an idiot for doing this….but if it helps….I promise. I….promise to believe in myself again."

"Thank you," Kei cried as she finally let go of Pixel. A few moments later, her PET went off. She wiped her face and looked down at the device, "Looks like school starts soon."

"Guess we better go…." Pixel said as she started to get up. The navi balled her fist. It would be much easier to break the damn thing and just overload herself. But _she_ would probably stop her from doing the deed anyway. And if anything, at least now she had one more reason to give the dark soul hell. She had given up on that dream some time ago, but maybe if Kei thought she had a chance….

"You sure you don't want to go back to the house?" Kei asked as she followed suit.

The navi merely turned back, "I guess I should at least put the copybot back in your room." Great, now she had made an impossible promise to someone who easily meant the world to her. How the heck was she going to keep this up? She swallowed hard as she looked forward and noticed _her_ sneering at her from the other side of the roof top. And that's when Pixel realized something. Kei was trying to give her hope. And if it was one thing a dark soul hated, it was hope. Well, if this promise would even make _her_ feel even a fraction of what _she_ did to her, then by all means Pixel was going to make sure she kept it.

Kei smiled as the two climbed down the later. However, it wasn't just because Pixel had made her promise to her, or that she actually expressed herself, or even that she talked back to her at a time when she wouldn't talk to anyone. No, she smiled because Pixel had made the smallest of smiles when she said that.

And just seeing that was enough to make her smile for the rest of the day.

* * *

Update: Sunday

Ghost: Yeah, so to clarify _Soul Eclipse_ is mostly Pixel's comeback rather than her depression. The problem with it was that it's a long time skip. In addition, Pixel's more dark depression never really started until the summer in the same year as this story. She still believed that somehow Lan and Megaman would be able to get save her from Dark Pixel or at least get her to the manageable point of Dark Hub or Dark Roll. But, they never did and sure enough three was an unlucky number and after years of terror Pixel finally began to start giving in to what Dragar wanted most: terror and loss of all hope.

Anyway, I just thought I would clarify all that since it may fell like you all are sorta plopped here in the middle of it all. Ghost501 logging out!


	3. Chapter 2

**Review Responses:**

**Lucario: **Eh, one problem with that. Regal's mind was completely wiped at the end of BN5's main story. He no longer remembers being a villain and ergo no longer remembers dealing with Dark Power since that was his main tool of evil in the series. So, the Dark Power expert is forgotten. SoulNet by now would either have been destroyed in the volcano explosion or at this rate too dilapidated to even help. I forgot what circumstances in _Dark Empire_ I used to allow SoulNet to exist. But for DN, I'm going to go ahead and say its inaccessible.

* * *

**Chapter 2 - Little Freak**

'_Why can't that girl just organize her files like everyone else. Hard to believe she gets an A in everything but has everything in such a mess!'_ Pixel thought as she shifted through some more files to find Kei's homework. After seeing how annoyed Dark Pixel was, Pixel had been trying harder than ever to ignore her and think less depressing thoughts.

The end of the day had come much faster than she had expected, but of course Kei had forgotten her homework and had asked Pixel to go back to get it. She had been about to go with her, but Pixel told her that it was better if she just went home and left the small task to her. The magenta navi sighed as she began to finally get somewhere and find the hopeful spot where the girl had stored her homework files.

'_**That's nice keep ignoring me. Let's see how well this little phase of yours lasts when I come back tonight. Hmm, maybe I'll elaborate on that scene I showed you last night? But perhaps, I'll add someone else to it.' **_Dark Pixel sneered as the navi tried to focus on searching the files.

Pixel shook her head. Last night, _she_….Dra…._she_ had thought it pretty funny to display at least 10 other ways that _she_ could have deleted her father when _she_ had initially showed herself. Each deletion was different but all were just too cruel for heart to take. She had been surprised that no one had heard her or perhaps years of learning how to hide everything she was feeling and experiencing had finally paid off for her and she hadn't even made a sound as she tossed in her sleep.

The magenta navi stopped searching for the items for a moment. She hated being so weak. It went against everything she was. She wasn't this….this thing that Dark Pixel was trying to make her. She was stronger than her….she had to be….right? That's why she had lasted so long. But up until this morning, she hadn't believed it. Nor had she found her fire again. The poor flame had been ousted by her own deepening despair after her father and uncle had attempted to channel her powers by mimicking the Beast Out and Chaos Unison abilities that Dad had. The attempt had been much less successful and it had been the closest in four years that she had come out again.

She had pretty much lost hope that she would ever be free of her ownership since early summer after that attempt. She had been almost certain that the dark soul would have soon taken her over even without her forcing her back all the time. And then, after she had almost attacked her brother, she knew that she had lost whatever chance of life she had left. All this was the reason she had gone lifeless on everyone. She not only needed as much power as possible, but she also needed to not give her any kind of ground above her. At least, just not as quickly as she was already.

Emotions were a surefire way for the dark soul to make its escape. So she shut herself off from her and pretended to not have any. Then the worsening of her dreams just made it so easy to disconnect from the world. Every time she had one, she would just wake up and realize it wasn't real. It was then she that she began to crave staying awake versus staying asleep. Mainly being by herself was a trigger for her to start havoc in her head. If she stayed close to Mom or Dad, she typically backed off. But she was getting too old to be hiding behind her parents, especially after their own dark souls made their displeasure of hers known.

But….maybe she should go back to it if they were getting this bad. To think that this morning she was pretty far gone. If Kei hadn't shown up, how long would she have stayed on that rooftop? How long would it be before she had gone home? Or the real question would she have gone back…. She knew that Kei had overheard her Dad, Mom, uncle, and aunt talking about whether or not to keep her in her PET. After all, she had told her about it later one night. However, Kei hadn't known the reason why the conversation had even occurred and the magenta navi intended to keep it that way.

The truth was that Pixel had started….losing her sense of reality. The constant dreams and just overall feeling of hopelessness had allowed her to sometimes wander the Net and….subconsciously turn into her nightmare. She was lucky one night when her father and uncle had to run a late night errand to SciLab and had found her on the ground in Town Area 3 half transformed into the dark soul.

Dad had thought about locking her in only because he was worried about what would happen to _her_ if she ever got out. He knew that she hated becoming _her_ because she would merely blame herself for anything that she caused on the Net. Mom had argued that doing that would take away the last bit of freedom that she had and only make her mental state worse. Which would also be true.

Pixel was a free bird type spirit. She hated to be caged up and always was looking for the next adventure or fight to get in. Cutting of access to the Net and her copybot….she wasn't quite sure what she would have done had her parents gone through with it. She wasn't quite sure she ever thanked her Mom or aunt for that.

'_**Why bother really? Your little promise to that cousin of yours isn't going to stop me. Or are you forgetting that that little hiccup during the summer cost you big time?'**_ Dragar sneered as Pixel clutched her emblem. She felt like someone was trying to choke her out. She could literally feel her in front of her holding her by her neck.

Instead of giving Pixel more control over Dark Pixel, the dark soul had merely taken the Chaos Unison ability for her own, allowing her powers to be even more powerful than they were already. So far, Dragar had been smart enough to keep the little secret to her and Pixel and never really endangered her in front of public. But while she was in her Kei's Desk PC, no one would be able to get to her but Kei. And she had already gone home.

'_**Pixel, Pixel, Pixel. You never learn do you? You can't stop me the way you are. I thought I had broken that last bit of hope you were clinging to last night, but maybe you need a reminder of what I will do if you don't listen to me.' **_The dark navi put a clawed finger under the magenta navi's chin. Though to anyone else who would have been watching if able to, Pixel was merely choking on nothing and staring fearfully into the air.

'_**I'll destroy every last thing you love if you start to disobey me. I've just begun to figure out how to be free of this stupid energy sync between us. Finally we can become more like separate entities rather than this strange two in one deal. Then, all I have to do is eat that delicious little soul of yours and you'll be lost in Murkland forever. So remember, if you don't want to be present when I kill your family, I suggest you go back to being the lifeless little puppet you've been for the past couple of months.'**_ the dark soul said before letting go of the navi and disappearing from sight.

Pixel coughed hard as the pressure around her neck was finally gone. She was lucky she wasn't a human in the sense she needed oxygen; though the grip still had been very uncomfortable. As the navi finally recovered, she went back to what she was doing and found Kei's homework amongst some classwork notes that had been taken during August.

Pixel was almost in tears as she left the PC. She wanted so hard to be rid of _her_. And on some level she felt like she had gotten better at controlling _her_. Uncle Lan had told her it was that Dark Pixel was an irregular dark soul. Some odd reason, the dark soul intended for Stream had never entered his systems and had apparently entered some kind of limbo. Roll would have never noticed since the Dark Power then hadn't taken a consciousness yet without a navi to be implanted in and Dark Roll's powers were already in check.

So when Pixel was born, she had received both Stream's and her own dark soul, causing it to be doubly as powerful as a normal dark soul. What made matter worse was the combining between the Gregar Beast Out and her own main programming. The introduction of the dark soul into the cybeast programming had caused the beast's own primal anger to be unleashed and it probably produced an image of Falzar.

When Dark Pixel took over the programming, she fused both the mental image of Falzar and the Gregar programming to create her Dragar form, a corrupted version of the combination of both Cybeasts. At least, that was a speculation of his after nearly two months or so of thought. After all, only Dark Pixel would know the specifics. However, the problem for her was that she wasn't dealing with a normal dark soul. She was dealing with a "navi" with twice the amount of Dark Power and Cybeast Power than any navi on record. The fact that she hadn't converted earlier or even now had been an admirable feat.

But there was one damper to that which was Dark Pixel's constant drawing on Pixel's own energy. After consuming so much, she needed more energy than just what she could produced and was literally leeching off of Pixel in order for her to stay in control. If they could lower Dark Pixel's power without weakening Pixel herself, then she would be able to control her Beast Out powers and maybe the Dark Power as well. At least that had been the theory.

But so far, none of the attempts at doing so had worked because some how, Dark Pixel always found a way to manipulate the programs and make them work for her rather than against her. It was the price to pay for having a powerful, sentient, human/cybeast/dark spirit inside of her.

Pixel sighed as she continued her hike back to the Hikari network. She wanted more than ever to fulfill her promise to Kei. But sometimes it was just so hard to wake up and realize that she was in the same, worsening situation day after day after day. There were times that she really wished she hadn't woken up, just to make the world a safer place….oh to hell with the nobility, she was selfish and just wanted to torment to end! She didn't care about anything much at all anymore. Whenever she felt her presence, all she wanted to do was to curl up into a ball and stay in the corner until she passed. It was a bad storm that Pixel just wanted to hide under the covers from.

The magenta navi shook her head. She really needed to stop thinking this way if she was going to have a chance to live up to that promise. Maybe….maybe the two could go onto the Net. They hadn't been there for some time. At least a month since Pixel hadn't been on anywhere close to an C ranking in terms of her virus busting. It was becoming too dangerous for her to be on the Net merely because when she fought her lack of will to live expressed itself.

Yeah, she could do it. After all, she couldn't let Kei down. And besides, she was right. Mom would be crushed if she died. She didn't even want to know what would happen to Dad. Stream would probably just run off into seclusion. Uncle Lan and Aunt Mayl would probably be trying to keep both Kei and Patch together from losing their minds. Her family needed her to live. She needed to make them her hope.

"Well, well, well, Frax. Look who we've got here!" a red navi said as he walked up to Pixel with his green companion next to him. The red navi bore an emblem with a picture of a bug frag over a yellow on it while his buddy had one with a red X and black background behind it. The green one was more of a beast like navi which reminded Pixel of some kind of wolf while the red one was more humanoid with long black hair.

Frax smirked to his friend, "Yeah, Err. Look who's out by herself this afternoon. And I thought pretty girls never walked home alone." He said as Pixel took a step back from the two male navis.

Frax and Err were the two local bullies from the high school. She hadn't seen them in a while on the account that their NetOp's had been suspended. And just her luck that today was the day she ran into them alone. Seriously, what did bad luck have to do with Hikari? She didn't want to be friends with it at all! Typically these two liked to fight and even with her slightly increased spirit, she wasn't sure just what would happen if she had to take these jokers on.

"Just leave me alone okay." Pixel said, trying to bring out a seriousness in her voice. A little difficult since she had just become so accustomed to not caring.

Fraz laughed, "Wow. I didn't know you talked! Well, today is just full of surprises. So," the navi said, quickly catching Pixel off guard as he swiped the files from her hands, "Homework! Wow you are boring!"

Pixel gave them a stern look, "Give those back! My NetOp needs them!" The magenta navi reached for the files, but Frax merely tossed them over to Err.

"Not a chance little Pixy! See, we've been cooped up for the past few weeks because of that stunt we pulled last week. Which now that I think about it, didn't that goody-two-shoes brother of yours rat us out?" Err said as he moved to try and rip one of the files, "Hmm...I wonder if this deletes or corrupts them? What do you think Frax, math or English?"

"Don't!" Pixel said as she scrambled forward only to have her face grabbed by Frax and then pushed aside. She landed hard on the ground as the navi just shook his head and said some remark about her being pathetic.

"English. You can always make up some random problems and turn those in. But nothing beats not knowing what an essay is supposed to be about," the navi cackled as his buddy obliged and started ripping.

Pixel lunged after the file and stopped Err right before he started tearing into the instructions of the file. Since she had landed on him, the other files had flew up into the air. However, Pixel was still faster than most navis and plucked them all out of the air in record time. She grimaced as she looked at the ripped file. Kei could always make a new file to write on rather than the lined part right? The navi quickly pulled the files closer to her. The stupid homework files couldn't be downloaded for another five minutes, blast school protocol to "prevent" cheating.

"Oh, wanna play rough now do we? What about if we just head back to our NetOps and get them to rough up your little NetOp.? That'd be fun right?" Err said, smirking at the navi.

Pixel stopped in her tracks. Both of their NetOps were both pretty stronger and already not very friendly sophomores who loved picking on freshman. No, she wouldn't put Kei on the spot like that. It was bad enough that she had to deal with her, "Leave her out of this."

"So, you accept our challenge huh? Two versus one!" Frax said, walking closer to her.

"No! I'm not going to fight you! But Kei and I haven't done anything to you. If you have a probably with Stream and Patch then take it up with them, not us! That's just low!" Pixel argued back, beginning to feel irritated.

"Pixy, you haven't seen low yet. You know, the last kid our NetOp's spoke to changed schools after a week. I wonder how long….eh….what's her name again?" Err turned to Frax as Pixel's fists clenched.

Frax put a finger up to his head, "Hmm….something with a lock. Gold? No. Uh….what is her name? It's not anything like Key or something. Cause that would imply she's important or something. Maybe it's-urk!"

Before Pixel could even process what she was doing, Frax was being held up in the air by her. Her hand tightened around his throat. She could delete him from saying such stupid things about her NetOp. Hell, what was stopping her right? No one was around. All it would take is one little punch to the emblem and….

What the hell was she thinking?

"Hey! Put us down! Alright, we won't tell anyone honest. We swear!" Err said as Pixel looked at the other navi, who she had apparently also grabbed and had in a less tight stranglehold. But it wasn't the sudden surge of strength that had caused her eyes to widened with fear.

It was her claws.

Pixel dropped the two navis as the bullies landed with a thud and ran for their dear lives, screaming something about how she was a freak. But she wasn't concerned with any of that. The magenta navi stared at her shaking hands as the claws began to fade and form back into her normal appendages.

'_**Hmm….on second thought. I like it when you express yourself. Haven't felt that great in a while. Maybe I won't torment you tonight for being such a good girl….'**_ Dark Pixel snickered as Pixel somehow managed to find the ability to turn and run back to the Hikari network.

When she got back in, she quickly gave Kei her homework, went to her room, activated the security cube and cut off the communication link between her and the PET. She needed quiet. She needed to find her peace of mind. _She_ wasn't coming out yet. She hadn't even felt her force her way through at all. She had just….transformed.

Pixel managed to stop herself from crying. She couldn't show anything or she might get worse. She just needed to shut herself off. It worked before and it would work this time….right?

* * *

"And she's been there since she got back?" Roll asked as Kei nodded her head. Pixel had been doing so well earlier, she knew she should've just gone with her. Maybe then this wouldn't have happened. But as long as she cut off any communication, the only way left to get to her would be through the cyber world. Seeing as how Mega wasn't in yet, Roll was the only one who could possible get through to the magenta navi.

The pink navi sighed to herself, "I don't know what could have happened. But I'll talk to her. Thanks Kei," She said as she disconnected the window to Kei's PET and knocked on the security cube that sectioned off Pixel's room from the House network, "Pixel? It's me, Mom. Can you lift the security cube protocol for me?"

There a long silence for a moment and just before Roll was about ask again, she heard her voice sound, "Go away!" Her daughter responded. She didn't sound like what she "normally" did; she was scared. That much Roll could tell and that was at least an improvement from her much more nonchalant approach. Still, the fact that she was like this disturbed the pink navi.

Roll grimaced, "Pix, it's okay. You know you can talk to me no matter what. Please lift the protocol."

"No! Don't come in!" She said, once again sounding more fearful rather than anything else.

"Pixel, I'll override your passcode," Roll said, trying not to sound too forceful. To be honest, her daughter scared her when she was like this. The pink navi was never afraid of what Pixel would do to her, but rather what the magenta navi would do to herself. She had constantly been worried that one day she would walk over and find something terrible that her daughter had done to herself.

"...Fine." Pixel mumbled weakly as she lifted the security cube, knowing that her mother very well would just override the cube. She walked up to the pink navi as the cube disappeared, "What do you want, Mom?" She asked, trying to sound lifeless. Maybe if she sounded like she normally did, then maybe she wouldn't ask.

However, like all mothers, Roll wasn't even in the slightest convinced by her act. Not only could she tell that Pixel actually was forcing to sound like that, but the look in her eyes gave her completely away. Pixel was actually terrified. "What happened to you, Pix?" Roll asked as she walked inside her daughter's room.

The magenta navi cursed under her breath, "How do you always know?"

"I'm your mom; it's my job," Roll replied with a smirk, "Call it a special power." However, it faded as she sighed, "I'm sorry for barging in. It just worried me when I heard that you locked yourself in here. I guess I just wanted to make sure you were alright. If you don't want to talk, that's fine."

In the scenarios that Roll thought about, she hadn't seen the one where Pixel grabbed her and buried herself into her. The magenta navi held onto her tightly as she started bawling. Roll could barely make out what she was saying. There were words like "fault", "mine", "didn't mean", "her".

The pink navi merely returned her daughter's hold. Calming her down wouldn't do anything to her. They had already tried that on her. So instead, she would let her burn herself out. It seemed to do her more good than getting her to stop. She would have less energy as she went to sleep and thus could avoid nightmares better. Though her emotionless approach at least made her somewhat more active in the day.

"I've got you, Pix, and I'm not going to leave you." Roll told her as the magenta navi continued bawling, "No matter what happens, I'll always be there for you. I can't imagine how hard it is for you. But I'm so proud of you. You've made it through so far and still managed to still live. And...and now you're fighting again." The pink navi said blinking tears out of her eyes, "I thought for a while that you had given up and maybe you had. But you're coming back. I know you'll make it. Not because you're my daughter, but because you are you. You don't give up and you fight to the end. I believe you can fight her; that's why she hurts you so much. She's scared that she'll lose to you. Remember that even your own darkness fears you as much as you fear it."

Pixel sniffed. She had heard her mom say things like this to her before. It wasn't like her parents had stopped trying but more like she had shut them out. Nothing they did worked on her because she wouldn't allow them to. But now, her mom's words were actually getting through to her once again. As she continued to cry, she allowed her mom to actually hold her as she brought herself in close to her. Pixel felt horrible. She had done nothing to her family but make them worry about her and only because she thought she could shoulder _her..._Dark Pi..._her_ by herself. After each attempt to save her, she started closing herself off thinking that she could only deal with her dark soul by herself since everyone else had failed her. But maybe it was time to start believing in them again. After all, even after everything she had done to them, they still believed in her.

Finally, the crying stopped and Roll noticed her daughter finally fighting to stay away. The pink navi merely picked a spot on the floor and allowed Pixel to sleep on her. The young navi seemed to protest as Roll took off her helmet and rested it on the ground. But an exhausted Pixel was really nothing much to fight. Only Dragar could make her daughter act out like this. Soon after, the magenta navi stopped fighting it and just let sleep overtake her. As long as Mom was here, she more than likely wouldn't have any nightmares.

'_**Well, at least we both don't like that dragon,'**_ Dark Roll said as Pixel finally passed out.

'_That's about the only thing we agree on. I'm guessing Dragar's active again?'_ Roll asked are she pursed her lips. She hated seeing Pixel like this and every time she saw her not her happy self her heart broke for her. She would have rather had to deal with a more powerful Dark Roll than have Pixel deal with this monster.

Dark Roll huffed, '_**Yep. Probably why your daughter is so freaked out today. She probably got tricked into a partial transformation or something. Her Dark Power definitely spiked at some time today, but I can't tell to what degree it did.'**_

Roll sighed internally, '_I really hope whatever Hub and Lan are trying this time actually works. I'm not quite sure what'll happen to her if she has to go through that all over again.'_

'_**Of course you know what'll happen. You just don't want to admit that you know. Pixel's already at her breaking point. Add more and she'll go over the edge. What exactly that entails is unforeseen, but I could give you a likely list if you want.'**_ Dark Roll scoffed. She didn't know why this so called hero wouldn't do the right thing and get rid of the giant threat that was sleeping in her arms! All it would take was an arrow to the emblem and bye bye Dark Pixel!

'_Why would I even dream of…you know what, we're done talking. Unless you have any bright ideas about getting rid of or weakening Dark Pixel then quit talking to me. You're making me upset.'_ Roll growled, not wanting to deal with her own dark soul's problems tonight.

Dark Roll mentally raised an eyebrow, '_**Wouldn't that only work in my favor?'**_

Roll smirked darkly, '_Would you like to test to see how angry I get when you mess with my kids? Even if you would take over, I'd still beat you from inside my head. I would just take myself back, but I wonder how would you feel if I tried your route. From my experience, it isn't that pleasant to have someone force their consciousness on you.'_

If Dark Roll's mouth could hang, it would hit the Undernet by now, '_**Geez...I thought you were the nice type….I mean sure I'm your dark soul. But….that was just mean.'**_

'_I am. Just as long as you don't touch my kids.'_ The pink navi said as she herself drifted off.

* * *

Update: Sunday

Ghost: Aww...placing all bets this scene doesn't last next chapter. XD Ghost501 logging out!


	4. Chapter 3

**Review Response:**

**Lucario: **Dark Hub didn't rebuild SoulNet; there was a backup network that was made in its image as a fail safe if I remember correctly. Don't worry, Dragar will start doing stuff soon enough. Eh, that would possibly only make Dragar stronger. And or possible end up getting Pixel killed even at this point.

* * *

**Chapter 3 - Unwanted Guest**

The Undernet was renowned as one of the darkest places on the Net, home of terrifying and villainous navis. However, as time moved on, this place of dread had become less and less frightening. With the return of the Undersquare, navis from the other regions of the Net began to return back to the Undernet mainly to trade bug frags. Plus, there was also the debunking of every single organization that took advantage of the Undernet's secrets. WWW, Nebula, Gospel, and CHAOS (despite Dawn's nonuse of the area) were no more and any small time criminals were normally found pretty easily.

With the new increase in navis, the scare factor that the network had began to decrease. Such as the peace times allowed it, the Undernet was no longer the sole place for criminals to hide. However, it's expansive area made it a good place to get lost in….or sometimes a good place to find someone.

"Hey Strike! I think I found it!" a pink and green navi smiled brightly as she pointed to curtained off door or rather the remains of them. She had thought her mom had told her that all the fabrics had disappeared off the Net a long time ago. But she always had a sneaking suspicion that her mother wasn't completely right. Sometimes she forgot little things like this.

A brown and black navi yawned as he walked up to his sister, "Geez Trace, I swear you act like a little six year old when it comes to finding treasure." Strike commented as he stretched himself out. For being the brother of the Net renowned treasure finder, he was pretty passive about the whole search. Then again, it was never finding the items that intrigued him but rather the fights they would have to get in along the way.

Trace rolled her blue eyes, "What can I say, I love finding this stuff! And plus, I'd be wasting my abilities if I didn't do this!" She winked as she focused. When she opened her eyes, she could see a blue line illuminating the path for her. She smirked as she walked up to the panel and pulled it up, revealing the data she was looking for.

The pink navi had been specially designed to find any item as long as she had its signature. Originally, she and her brother had been designed as a bounty hunter pair. Trace would locate a navi and Strike would finish them off. For the female navi, those had been the worst years of her life. She had never asked Strike about them, but she knew that she never liked leading her brother to a mark. It always made her feel….icky inside.

And then one night, her brother had taken her hand and they had run off into the Undernet. He had unregistered them from the PET and they were gone. For days, they had wandered around just looking for a place to at least stay without being jumped by someone.

And then they had found Mom; it was then the rules had changed. After meeting her, the two deserted their original names and became the treasure hunting duo, Trace and Strike. It had taken quite some time to get over the pain it took get over what had happened and even now it was still a battle. But the point was the fact they could restart and live new lives. And the two were never happier for it.

"So whad'ya find this time?" Strike asked as he looked at the blue orb in his sister's hand. The program in her palm seemed to pulse with its own sort of energy. It was actually kinda cool.

Trace cocked her head, "Mom said it was something the humans used to use to make that Holy Dream chip. But since all the Dark Chips were destroyed, it was used less often. Nowadays, apparently a better form of it used at SciLab. At least that's what I heard about from those people in the Undersquare. Anyway, Mom called it Holy Power." The pink navi explained as she got back up to her feet.

Strike raised his eyebrow as the two began to walk back to their home, "And how the heck did those people in the Undersquare now about that? I highly doubt a SciLab navi would just tell you all this and they barely come down here anyway."

Trace smirked, "Don't ask a girl her secrets, bro. Man, I've really got to teach you about women otherwise you'll never get a girl." She stated, shooting him a pointed look.

"What? You wouldn't want a chance to be with this guy!" He said as he pulled a pose, although he couldn't hide his embarrassment too well on the account that he pretty much looked like an idiot either way.

"May someone help whoever falls in love with the treasure hunter's bodyguard." his sister joked as she bumped into him. He was so easy to goad. It wasn't really much of an ego more so that pride that normally got into his head, but the navi could easily be shy when no one was looking.

However, as the two walked back to the Secret Area, they didn't notice a white navi hovering in the air behind them. The navi smirked as they walked. Their power had been drastically reduced to the point that it almost wasn't there, but the white navi could sense their Dark Power. While she couldn't find Dark Power from long distances, she could sense them up close. But then again, that was why she was following them. If she took them now, it was safe to assume that someone would look for them. So, she planned to trail them until they finished their job or got into a more suitable location.

It was no surprise that they lived in the Undernet; after all where else would a treasure hunter crew would go other than a place in which their were untold secrets hiding in wait to be found. So, the white navi had found her way there and then waited until she found the Dark Power signals she was looking for. And besides for the prey she was going for, she was going to need some lackeys to get the job done.

* * *

"Mom! We got the Holy Power! Where do you want us to put it?" Trace said as she and Strike walked into Secret Area 3. The network looked the same as it had several years ago, only that now instead all the objects like the security system and obelisks were still torn down. Mom had never felt like fixing the place up since Secret Area was a placed not often traveled to anymore, "Sorry we took so long to get back. Strike had to stop by the Undersquare and see if they have any new ability parts."

"I was wondering what happened to you two. Why would you need ability parts?" the dark skinned navi asked, confused by her two "kids" as she walked up to them after looking at yet another shamble of an obelisk.

Strike shrugged, "I don't know. Figured we put some decorations up here since we haven't switched out all those broken obelisks yet. Which does lead to the question, why didn't you change them?"

Serenade put a finger on her head, "There's nothing much to really change them out with. After Bass's and Megaman's final showdown in here, I guess I just didn't feel like it. Though, this place has gotten quite boring since that Megaman debunked the ranking system. No one wanted to be in as long as he was the Number One." She sighed; she had sorta liked that system. At least people would come by more often.

"I wonder what that guy even fights like. I mean not that I really would want to fight him," Strike stopped as his sister gave him a baffled look. However, the glance was humorous enough on Trace that it caused Serenade to laugh.

"Since when do you back down from a fight?" Trace asked as an embarrassed Strike rubbed the back of his head.

The brown navi smirked, "I'm not afraid for myself. I mean he would probably go down so easily if I actually tried. I'd just hate for the savior of the world to meet the mighty Strike!"

Serenade walked over the male navi, "So you mean that you'd just hate to get your pride damaged," She said as she flicked the navi, "You know it's bad to be so prideful. You'll hurt yourself. Or possibly turn yourself into a lion navi. Whichever one happens first." The ex-Underking spoke as Strike rubbed his nose.

"Yeah, yeah. I know, I know." He said as he turned to the left. Little did they know that Megaman had a much bigger effect on him than he liked to let on. He knew he didn't stand a chance against that blue navi which was why when his NetOp got the contract for him, he took Trace and ran for it. Much better than dying trying to take out the savior of the world. Strike was almost about to roll his eyes when he realized that they weren't alone. He put his arms out in front of his mother and sister. When the heck had she gotten there?

The white navi smiled as Strike finally noticed here. However, the smile soon turned to a grimace as she looked at Serenade, "Don't tell me that the legendary S's skills have gone down so much that you hadn't noticed me this whole time?" She asked.

Serenade shook her head, "I noticed you but I just thought that you would go away since clearly everyone here is busy talking."

The white navi gave the navi an incredulous look, "So, you choose not to take me seriously?"

"Are you giving me a reason to?" Serenade asked before she gave the navi a hard stare, "Now what do you want with us? Not that I normally mind navis coming here but you don't seem to be the normal kind of navis I'm used to." She stated.

The white navi stepped forward, "In fact I am. You, pink navi. Come to me, there is something I require of you." She demanded in a commanding voice.

Serenade walked in front of Strike, "And why do you think you can just come here and demand my daughter to do anything for you? Look, I have no idea why you want her, but you can't have her!" The dark skinned navi growled, beginning to actually become more irritated by this navi's presence. But there was something about her that worried her. She definitely wasn't the run of the mill navi.

"Oh what? Is she a possession of yours? And why do you call her daughter? You two look nothing alike." The white navi pointed out, ignoring Serenade's obvious discomfort about her request.

"Hey instead of asking twenty questions, why don't you start answering some of 'em! Who are you and why are you after my sister?" Strike yelled, also agitated by the her presence.

The white navi closed her eyes and smirked, "My name is Slur and as one of Duo's watchers I demand that your precious sister be relinquished to me. I have a much needed warning that must be sent to Duo and she is vital to the plan I have in place in order for him to head my word. Though I must admit I'm impressed that you two have lowered your Dark Power levels so well. I wonder what makes that possible?"

Serenade stepped forward in front of Strike and Trace, "I think we're done with this game. For being the watcher of a judge like Duo, don't you think you're being a pretty big bad guy right now? I don't know why you're after her, but like I said earlier," An orb began to float over to Serenade's side, "You can't have her."

Slur smirked, "So are you prepared to fight for your "daughter's" protection? It seems like a rather pointless quest to me. To put it in terms you'll understand, you have no idea what you're getting into. And for what? A couple of navis with dark souls?"

The ex-Underking waved her hand as the orb flew out and began to swivel towards Slur, "You can feel free to shut up now."

* * *

"_I think we're safe in here…." Strike said as his sister walked lifelessly next to him. Once again, the two had run off from another gang that had cornered them. Being ex-bounty hunters had caused them to have a lot of enemies. Luckily, they had stopped chasing them after they had jumped into whatever this network was called._

_Trace looked down at the ground, noticed a bug frag, and then kicked it, "How long will we have to stay here? Or do you think they'll just stay out there until we come out?" She asked, her voice sounded like everything had been beaten out of her. Then again, those guys had gotten some good shots in on them._

"_Hey, you hurt? Like really hurt? I'm not sure where we'll find some sub chips but if you need anything," Strike started, ignoring her question. Right now, he didn't even want to consider the other options. His sister shook her head and he made a silent sigh of relief, "Look, we'll just stay out here and then run right past them before they even know what's going on!"_

_Trace shot him a wry look, "You know the odds of that even working are in the negatives rights?" She said as Strike gave her a strange and surprised look, "Look, why don't we just continue going into this network. We may just find someone who can help. And what's with that face?" Trace pointed her thumb down the road. However, her voice soon caught as she realized that her thumb had hit someone._

"_Who are you and what are you doing here?" Serenade asked._

* * *

Since that point, they had become a family and each of them had sorta adapted to each other. Trace was mostly a timid girl with some amounts of sarcasm still in her while Strike was a prideful fighter although he was easily embarrassed. He still possessed quite a bit of power while Trace possessed to the skill.

Serenade on the other hand had learned to become a little more...personable. Eventually, Trace and Strike started to call her mom and Serenade hadn't stopped them. In truth, she actually liked it. She was able to take care of someone (or someones in this case). She hadn't had much time to stay with Mamoru and take care of him in the way she had wanted to. He had spent so many days in the hospital without a friend while she was condemned to watching that stupid Forbidden Program.

By the time Megaman had come to claim it, she had been unfortunately unable to find her PET. Apparently, it might have been smashed one day when her old NetOp was having a seizure and her registration data had never been recovered. So, she had returned back to the Secret Area and stayed there for years unknown to her NetOp. It had been quite the bore until Trace and Strike had come into the place to escape those gangs.

And now, someone was coming for them again. The difference was that now, she was also there.

* * *

"Trace! Strike! Get behind me!" Serenade yelled. There wasn't any place they could go since they were already in the back of the network but they could at least get out of the battle area. The two navis nodded as they retreated as far back as they could.

Slur smirked as she saw the two navis flee, "Sending them back there won't save them. You'll barely be able to save yourself by the time I'm done with you. Meteor Wire," Strands of light extended from her wrist as she grabbed Serenade's Saint Light and flung it back at her.

Serenade put up her arms as her attack hit her and a Sonic Boom fired, striking Slur since she wasn't suspecting that Serenade could counter and attack. After all, her Counter Program was developed for just such a time. It was more or less created so that she could protect Mamoru from anything she could or more so to prevent herself from being overrun by viruses.

Slur landed back on the ground as she smirked, "Impressive. I guess I'll actually have to try," She said as she summoned an Life Aura, "It'll take quite some power in order to destroy this."

Serenade smirked, "Easy enough. Holy Shock!" She said as a gust of wind blew away Slur's aura and she was blasted by a barrage of blasts that cracked the panels they landed on. Not that they had much of an effect of Slur since she could hover. But still, the attack itself was enough to knock the white navi down on the ground. Impressive, with that kind of power it was easy to see why Serenade was known as the Underking.

The dark skinned navi walked closer to the downed white navi as her Counter Program reactivated, "You might as well give up. Only two navis have ever defeated me before and I don't think that you will be the third. Unlike either of them, you seem to not have power nor mercy. I think it'll be pretty hard for you to even give me a challenge." Serenade boasted, hoping that her words would cause Slur to back down.

"Shut up, you ignorant navi," Slur said as she climbed up to her feet, "Meteor Blade!" The strands of light formed into that of a two sided sword as she ran forward and rammed into Serenade. The dark skinned navi's Sonic Boom flew at her as Slur's sword slammed into her. However, the white navi used her blade to split her Serenade's counter into two, "You have no idea just what I'm capable of.

"I may not be able to pierce that defense of yours, but just imagine what I can do. There isn't a single way you can attack right now and I'll bet that when you attack that guard of yours must drop when that happens. So, I'll give you a choice. You can surrender or I'll blast those two brats," Slur smirked as the blade became wires once more and wrapped around Serenade's wrists, ultimately handcuffing her.

Serenade gave her a hard look, "You wouldn't."

Slur watched her for a moment before smiling, "Oh, I'm sure they'll survive….if they run. Meteor Strike!" She yelled as meteors began to fall from the sky and hit random parts of the network.

"NO! Holy Shock!" Serenade said as her attack began to cancel out Slur's. Luckily for Trace and Strike, the dark skinned navi's blasts had managed to take out a few stray meteors that had been heading in their direction.

However, she realized too little too late that she played right into Slur's hand, "Meteor Halo!" The white navi bounded back as the ring of wires that surround Serenade's wrists began to glow brightly. The explosion that occurred after left a damaged dark skinned navi lying on the ground groaning due to the attack. The white navi breathed hard as she tried to catch herself.

That attack took quite a bit of her own energy, but it was a special one used to counter powers like Serenade's. They would disable programs for a short period of time and normally worked well to confuse dark navis since they would be at odd with their lighter and darker selves giving her time to strike. On a navi like Serenade, it meant that her Counter Program wouldn't rearm after her attack for about a minute.

"Meteor Strike!" Slur yelled, now focusing the attack to only hit the area where Serenade was. The white navi smirked as she noticed the dark skinned navi was still alive. She was as tough as the rumors said, but she had lost this battle.

Slur grabbed Serenade and threw her over to the side of the network. The white navi opened a panel and the purple gate activated, locking Serenade in, "You can stay there for now. Don't worry, the effects of that attack should be over soon but if you try anything I will kill those two."

"Stay….away…." the dark skinned navi groaned.

Slur merely smirked, "I'm sorry, but that is unlikely." She said as she walked off towards Trace and Strike. The two navis merely stared in disbelief at the white navi before them as she gave them both an even stare.

"Disobey me and I will kill your dear mother. Understand?" She spoke firmly to the two navis. Grudgingly, both agreed.

Serenade tried to get back up, but the movement took up to much energy. Geez, just how much energy did that thing take from her. Or perhaps it was because her system were so busy reinstalling her programs back into her. Either way, it wasn't long before Serenade fell back on the ground and passed out.

'_Trace….Strike….'_

* * *

Slur kept silent as the navis began to walk through the Undernet. The brown and black navi kept on trying to shot her death stares but she didn't care what that Dark Power navi had to say to her. She was going to exterminate him, his sister, and all other Dark Power on the planet. Which only strengthened her confusion over Duo's decision to not act.

Several days before Duo's presence became known by the humans, he had sent her ahead of him in order to see whether or not the planet known as Earth was to be destroyed for its sins. When she had landed on the Net, she had immediately felt the presence of the dark forces that roamed the cyber world. Following her protocol, she had found a spot on the Net and entered into a hibernation state after sending the signal to Duo that Earth was ready to be destroyed.

However, she had woken up now several years later to find that indeed this planet still lived. Dup had spared them! But before the rage of thinking that this world had lived overcame her, she questioned as to why she had awakened. Only two things could wake her out of her state, an unprecedented surge of Dark Power or Duo himself. It hadn't taken her long to figure out what had broken the protocol.

For the last four years, she had been trying to contact Duo and get him to return to this world to destroy the planet. But he had been silent and as far as she could tell, he hadn't changed his course at all. He had ignored her. Despite the warnings, he had decided to leave the planet alone. And that alone seemed to drive her insane.

Why? What made this planet more special than any other. He was the eliminator of evil and he refused to listen to one who had been appointed to inform him that a world needed to be destroyed. And before its last moments, he would cast the final judgement. But he had never spared a planet before today. And now….he was refusing to recognize that a force unlike any ever seen had risen.

So, she was going to make him see. The flare that Dark Power navi had released had been enough to wake her out of her sleep. She was going to make her release more. If one of these navis existed, there was no telling if someone would try and duplicate it. It had to be destroyed. All of it! Only then would the universe be safe. Only then could goodness start again and pave the way for life.

Since that time of awakening, Slur hadn't been able to get a fix on this navi but she had learned of one's ability to track down any treasure. Surely, she should be able to find a navi using the same approach.

Slur clenched her fists. She had waited long enough. The more they waited, the more likely that darkness would rule. So, she had decided to go against protocol and take matters into her own hands. Duo would show up to do what he hadn't done in the past. She would make sure of it.

* * *

Update: Sunday

Ghost: Finally. Man, the powers of a laser pointer sure do wonders. Anyway, whad'ya know I lost the bet. I guess I'll um...I guess I'll...I don't know what I'll do. I didn't put money up. Guess, I'll just write I LOST. Yeah, that works right? Heh...bye! Ghost501 logging out!


	5. Chapter 4

**Review Responses:**

**Lucario:** Pixel does have the Merge System, however the only time this system has been active is when Dark Pixel is in control. Pretty much at this point, Dragar taking everything from her. Well almost... it's a thing explained later on. He wouldn't get much out of it, the don't speak much in words...and Bass doesn't show up in this story at all.

* * *

**Chapter 4 - Somebody Make A Move!**

Trace glanced back at the white navi, grumbling and cursing up a storm in her head. She wouldn't stand a chance against someone like her if she manage to beat Mom. Mom was one of the toughest navis that the Net had ever seen and Slur had managed to defeat her ever so simply. Though, maybe Mom would have stood a chance if she and Strike hadn't stuck around to be almost blasted by her. Trace looked back miserably at the ground.

Mom had lost because of them. If they hadn't been around, well then she wouldn't be doing the exact same thing she had run from. The pink and green navi clenched her teeth, not at all appreciating the unintended walk down memory lane.

When Shadowman had aligned himself with Team Colonel, their NetOp had decided to take advantage of the lack of competition in the assassination game. Using a chips like Dark Invis and Dark Sword for his basis, he managed to build two dark navis that would be able to avoid the side effects of Dark Chips while boasting their power. They were infused with Dark Power and programmed to be the more capable pair of hired help. Trace had never understood her NetOp's obsession with it all.

After Nebula fell, Shadowman came back and started to kill business for them. In addition, only a few months later a navi by the name of Eraseman also made his way onto the scene. Sometime later, Trace and Strike had fled from their lives as bounty hunters after her brother told her that their NetOp was taking on more than they could chew. Trace almost laughed bitterly. Why did she feel that now they were definitely in over their heads?

Strike, on the other hand, was still completely miffed about the whole ordeal. He as well had considered that it might in fact be partly their fault for their mother's loss. But they were well equipped to take the damage and live. Even if Slur was powerful, they could have found some other way to protect themselves without their mother saving them. He wasn't ungrateful, but he sure did feel undermined.

The brown and black navi grimaced as they continued their trek. If only there was any way to lose track of Slur and head back to Mom. If they were able to come together, surely they could come up with a plan to beat Slur. But….could Mom take a rematch right now? Slur had launched a lot of meteors at her and she had no sub chips to help her recover her energy. She would be reliant on rest alone to heal her. No, he and Trace wouldn't be able to beat her and now they would probably have to cover for their mom to if they ever got in a fight. Unfortunately, their best and only option was to do whatever Slur said in hopes that she would be noble enough to not kill them after the job was done.

Trace stopped as they finally reached the end of their journey. The three navis were in front of a security cube in the end of ACDC Area 1. The pink navi walked over to the cube and pressed a button on in.

"Well….apparently the navi we're looking for is someone from the Hikari family. But I can't exactly tell who it is. There are three navis with higher than normal Dark Power levels," Trace said some exasperated, "So, can we go now? I did what you asked me to. So just give us the password you put on my mom's lock." She asked in a little bit of a demanding voice.

Slur shook her head, somewhat surprised that the pink navi was quite as timid as she thought she would have been, "Not quite. Your job isn't done until I've acquired the navi I seek." Slur said as her wires extended out and began to sabotage the security cube, "There, now we can proceed. You two will proceed inside and grab the one with the highest Dark Power levels while I take on any unfavorable."

Trace looked nervously at her brother, "Wait….you mean this is a kidnapping job?" Trace thought that just finding the navi would be the end all of it, but from the looks of things maybe that was too much to hope for.

"What else did you assume it to be? A treasure hunt? Now, go and complete your task before I decide to delete you both and do the job myself," Slur said, an edge in her voice. The two navis seemed to bite back words as they quickly entered the Hikari House network while Slur followed.

Quickly, the two navis departed while Slur lied in wait of whoever was going to approach to so what became of the security cube. Yes, today was going to be the end of her purpose. She was going to bring Duo back and thus bring forth this planet's destruction.

* * *

"Hey Stream, can you check on your mom and sister? Apparently the security cube is acting up," Megaman asked his son as he poked his head into his room.

"Sure dad!" Stream said as he got up from his place on the ground and walked outside. He had left his security cube open and Patch had fallen asleep some time ago, leaving the cyan navi to his own devices. The navi really didn't go to sleep until later on the night, "But wait, why is the security going crazy? You mean someone broke it?"

The blue navi gave his son a confused look, "I can't say I know what myself. It doesn't appear to have been destroyed or damaged. But it's definitely not working right. Maybe some navis were having a battle and someone just shocked it the wrong way or something."

Stream cocked his head, "Can that even happened?" He had thought the security cubes would have been immune to such attacks. But he couldn't help but smiled inwardly; he often enjoyed hearing about these kinds of things. While it normally but Pixel to sleep, he would actually live to her his dad or uncle talk about their day at SciLab. His sister would call him a nerd (well she used to) but he never paid much attention to her.

Megaman chuckled at his son's interest, "It's not very often, but under the right voltage it's possible. Anyway, the alert went out about a minute ago. I've already checked the west and south part of the network, but I need you to check out the east part for me while I take care of it." His dad requested as his son nodded.

"You can count on me, Dad," Stream said as his father thanked him and headed towards the front of the network.

The Hikari House network was divided into four sections: the North Side where the links and entrance to the Net were; the East Side where Pixel's room was; the West Side where Stream's room was; and the South Side where Dad's and Mom's room were. Everyone had decided that it was only fair to split up the network as of course each member of the family wanted their own level of privacy. The wings weren't very far apart from each other, but just far enough away so that each part felt like there was some distance in between.

As Stream walked over, he noted that Pixel's security cube was still deactivated. She probably hadn't put it back up after Mom had gone to see her. Due to the lack of activity, everything seemed to still be in order. But he still should check just to make sure. Some viruses were pretty sneaky and he wouldn't have wanted anything to happen to Mom or Pixel that he could have prevented.

However, before the navi could even approach the "doorway", he felt someone grab him by his neck from behind him. The cyan navi struggled against the chokehold for a while before he saw spores in the air. His eyes widened briefly. The Spice battlechip had gone out of circulation years ago, but whatever this was was able to do the exact same thing as that chip. As Stream felt himself go boneless (not that he had bones to begin with), he heard some of the conversation that apparently his assailant and another navi were having.

"Is….the one?" a slightly heavy male voice asked. From his blurring vision, all he could tell was that the navi was a humanoid type with a black and brown bodysuit. He tried harder to listen in on their conversation as his body fought to keep him awake.

"He's not….no inside here….finish this." a lighter, more feminine voice replied to him. This one was a pink color, a shade or two heavier or lighter than his mom's. He couldn't really tell anymore. She too seemed to be a humanoid, but know it seemed as if his body was ready for him to retire.

Stream groaned as he tried to move himself to the doorway, but his vision was going black and his body felt heavy. He had probably only moved a micrometer forward for all of his work, "Pixel….Mom…." The navi mumbled as he heard the navis continue to walk towards the inside. There was nothing left for him to do but let the effects of whatever hit him put him to sleep. However, as soon as he went unconscious, a blast sounded throughout the network.

Dad….

* * *

'_Shoot! Slur really doesn't play around!'_ Trace thought as she and Strike entered the room and heard the explosion happen behind them. That was exactly why they were forced to do this.

Still….what that navi said was beginning to haunt her. They were actually going to become _kid_nappers. That now sleeping navi had said Mom. He heard him. She was hoping that she was wrong. However as her senses focused on the slightly smaller magenta navi, the conviction in her soul was becoming more real.

Trace tried to shake her head of her thoughts. They hadn't been expecting the cyan navi to be on his way to their destination, but they merely rolled with the punches since they merely had wanted to get this job as soon as possible. Plus, it wasn't like they hadn't had ways to deal with such things. Trace had two functions: one was to find the target and the other was a nonlethal neutralization. Strike handled most of the combat while she took care of the stealth.

Still though, Trace had noticed that her brother had been very agitated when he realized whose house they had entered. Mainly after he saw the family's emblem on the floor of the main part of the network. When all of this was over, Trace would ask him why Hikari sent such a fear into his systems but right now they had a completely different situation to deal with.

Trace looked at Strike and nodded as she pointed to the magenta navi. The two were well aware of the more recent developments of Roll's and Megaman's life. Someone had even should them a picture of them at their wedding. It had been some blue and green navi who had apparently been trying to find some Air Shoes. He had thought the two were selling the program and somehow they ended up in some long conversation. Mainly it was the fact that he had been a sibling of a deleted navi too, but became a brother to Roll. However, Trace forgot most of the talk, but on the other had he had seemed like a very nice navi.

The pink navi shook her head as she tried to think her was past the big elephant virus in the room. See, her Blackout Program might not work as effectively on Roll since she was already asleep. What was worse was that the commotion seemed to be waking her up. And if Serenade acted the way she them about them being taken when they weren't even originally hers, well she didn't want to see what happens when an actual mother had her claws out. The only good news was that the magenta navi in question seemed too tired to actually be affected by what was going on and hadn't even stirred.

"Trace, spice the room. If she moves, I'll buy you some time. Just grab her before she realizes what's going on!" Strike whispered hurriedly as Roll was now beginning to blink her eyes uncertainly.

Trace nodded as she saw Strike hold his breath and spice soon filled the room. The pink navi coughed violently when the sleeping agent reached her and her daughter. Trace ran over quickly and slung the magenta navi over her shoulder before turning on her heels to bolt.

However, she hadn't been expecting Roll to be so responsive even after the attack. The pink navi had grabbed her by her ankle and although she seemed disoriented, she was beginning to get a good picture about what was going on.

"Let….her….go," the pink navi said in a low voice that Trace could only be described as "you-have-two-seconds-to-stop-before-I-kill-you" voice. The other pink navi froze mostly out of fear as Roll's own concern and probably distress over her daughter about to be kidnapped seemed to only be allowing her to fight off the spice as her eyes seemed to be snapping into focus more.

"I think I should be saying that to you," Strike said in a cold voice as a cannon appeared on his arm. He wouldn't be able to fire without getting Trace caught in the crossfire, but that pink navi wasn't certain about the risks he would take. For all she knew, Trace and him barely knew each other.

Roll glared at him before her bow appeared on her hand. She directed it at him faster than he could even process it. Then again, she probably wasn't Megaman's wife for now reason either. She probably would be even more of a threat now that her daughter was in trouble. Not taking her angry green eyes of of Strike, her hold on Trace's ankle tightened, "Let. Her. Go."

Trace shook her head as another blast of Spice was sent into the air. Roll's coughing cost her a few seconds of not looking at Strike as he pointed his cannon into the air and fired. Of course, he had pulled out his Flash Cannon. The blast illuminated the network and blinded Roll long enough for Trace to slightly stomp her hand off her ankle and make a break for the exit.

The pink navi jumped over the still unconscious cyan navi and continued her mad sprint across the Hikari House network. Towards the center, he noticed that Megaman was still fighting Slur, who seemed to allowing him to fight multiple darker clones of himself. The thought only terrified her more. Was she able to do that to even her and Strike? She knew Megaman had a dark soul because he was giving off that kind of power but that only leaded her to wondering why did Slur even need this navi?

The whole situation only confused her, but for now it was just keep running back to Secret Area. She didn't remember running this fast before but it wasn't like she could jack out. Apparently, someone had put up a firewall. If she listened close enough, she thought she could hear the blue navi saying something. But Slur had cut him off and soon she raised her hands in the air.

"Meteor Strike!" She yelled as large meteors began to fall down to the ground and impact the area where Megaman was.

Trace merely shut her eyes and continued running. Could he even survive that big of a blast? Did Slur just make this girl fatherless? The pink navi couldn't believe what she had gotten herself into. But she had no choice. Slur would kill them otherwise. But wasn't she doing exactly what she didn't want happen to herself? The thoughts confused her to no end as she stepped onto the link (Slur's attack had managed to severely weaken not only Megaman but the firewall as well) and jacked out into the Net.

She didn't stop running until she was back home. Apparently, the magenta navi had also inhaled both Spice attacks and was still knocked out from the effects. But she didn't care. She just set her down next to her and put her head into her lap.

Just what in all the Net was she doing?

"Trace?" her mother called weakly.

The pink navi raised her head quickly. Apparently she must have walked straight up to her mother's cell without looking. She turned to the side and realized that Slur wasn't her yet. Trace quietly pressed her hand to the purple gate that separated her from Serenade, "I'm….I'm sorry Mom." She said quietly.

Serenade managed to pull herself up from off the ground to get a better look at Trace. She wasn't fully recovered, but at least her programming had installed correctly back in its proper place, "Why are you crying, Trace?" She asked noticing the tears that her daughter failed to see.

Trace put a hand to her face, surprised as she wiped it, "It's all a mess. It's Strike's and my fault why you didn't beat Slur because you were trying to protect us. And….and now it's worse. She had us kidnap this navi. I don't know what she was going to do to her but she's like me. She's someone's kid!" The pink navi had never felt more ashamed of herself. This was one of many reasons why she had been happy to get out of the bounty hunter business. Less people got hurt treasure hunting.

"And you would feel any different had it not been?" Serenade asked, slightly curious. She had never pressed the two for their background, although they eventually told her their past in time.

"I….I don't know. Maybe….I just…." Trace trailed off. No, she probably wouldn't have much better knowing that she was helping Slur send off this navi to some horrible fate. But the fact that she could relate to her made it an even tougher pill to swallow.

Serenade looked at Trace for a moment before looking at the magenta navi she had laid on the ground, "Is that her? She doesn't look much older than you." The dark skinned navi noted.

"We don't age, Mom. We're just programmed to look a certain way," Trace said, not understanding why her mom would take notice of such a thing.

"That's true. I guess I'm trying to see similarities where there aren't any," Serenade said as mirthfully as she could, "But still, perhaps you are looking at this in almost the wrong light. Do you see that navi as you? Ripped away from someone you love and thrown into a horrible mess all for the sake of someone else's fun. Or do you think that maybe it is something different?" Serenade asked.

Trace's face wrinkled a bit as she thought, "I guess. I….I'm not quite sure. I mean, she wasn't that way before I….before I took her. But maybe now I do."

Serenade nodded, "You feel sorry for her because you have mercy on her. You understand what she's just been placed into and you feel sorry for her not only because you by no fault of your own placed her in the same situation but also because you know what this feels like." The dark skinned navi smiled as her daughter's face seemed to light up in understanding.

Serenade looked at Trace carefully, "Keep that mercy with you at all times okay? At times, that'll be the only thing you can use to your advantage. Some people can't understand what you know realize. They'll react badly when you try to tell them. But you must never forget that mercy is where you draw your power from, understand?" She asked, suddenly serious.

"Yes, Mom. I think I do anyway," Trace said. However, before she could saw another thing, she noticed out of the corner of her eye that Slur was entering the area. But Strike was nowhere to be found. Had he been left behind?

Trace's heart began to fill with dread. If he was still there….then how the heck would he survive Roll's wrath?

* * *

"Flash Cannon!" Strike yelled as he fired another round of his flash bang like shot into the air. However, he only had to wait a second before he had to once again dodge another volley of arrows. He had been impressed with himself. He didn't think he would have lasted this long against Roll Hikari.

This time before firing, he managed to actually catch a glimpse of Roll. Not only was she wearing a visor, probably the reason the Flash Cannon wasn't working anymore, but she looked downright murderous. Granted she probably wouldn't delete him because he was her only source of information, but she was pretty pissed that they had just kidnapped her daughter.

And since they were now outside the room, she had probably noticed her son's unconscious body outside the room. So yeah, he was pretty much the living definition of dead man walking. At least he hadn't had to worry about Megaman yet. It seemed as if the navi had been jacked out after Slur's attack on him.

Strike poked his head around a corner. Weird, where the heck had she gone to? This was bad. She knew this area better than he did and he needed to get out of here. But what if she chased him all the way down to Secret Area? He was almost certain Slur would kill Mom for that kind of interference. The brown navi looked behind him and noticed that the link to the Net was only a few feet away. He might be able to make it if he gunned it. He might be able to lose the navi in the Undernet if he was fast enough.

Deciding to take his chance, Strike bolted for the link. However, his dash was interrupted as he tripped over something and had fallen face first on the ground. The brown navi quickly picked himself up to notice a gray, feathery version of Roll staring angrily at him. Oh crap….

"Where. Is. She?" The navi asked lividly. He couldn't really blame her. In fact, she was actually taking the whole thing better than what he would have expected.

Strike put up his hands, trying to show he was done with attacking, "Look, I know you're upset but I really can't tell you that. I know that you can easily kick my butt. However, I can't tell you where she is. She's safe I know that much." _At least until Slur gets there_. He thought bitterly.

Roll's expression changed from shock to complete anger, "Do you think I'm playing a game? Tell me where my daughter is right now!" She yelled.

Underneath the anger, Strike could hear her fear. She was downright scared for her. Strike swallowed hard. This was reason number two why he had left his NetOp. He had been lying to himself for months after his activation. Believing that he was some kind of hardcore killer. Deleting navis without a care. It wasn't until Megaman came up as a contract hit that he realized that he couldn't do it anymore.

He and his sister didn't have a heart for it. He had enjoyed the fights, but the days that he would delete navis were over. It had taken a while for him to finally get over it and he had visited the Graveyard area several times. Heck, one day he had allowed a ghost navi to beat the living crap out of him. But seeing Roll's face and hearing her voice. Well, he was almost tempted to tell her where exactly her daughter had been taken.

Strike tried to think of a way to make this work in his favor. However, before his better idea of telling her to wait for the rest of her family to get up came into his head, his mouth opened, "I'm sorry. But I can't tell you. I want to believe me, but I can't do it."

He mentally cursed himself as a powerful wind blew him backwards hard enough to knock him out. As the navi felt himself blackout, he made one promise to help them get back at Slur. The white navi deserved as much as maybe if he got back to Trace all of them could tag team and defeat her.

Yeah….that would be….pretty….sweet…...

* * *

Update: Sunday

Ghost: You know, I'm falling in love with these brother sister combos. Ghost501 logging out!


	6. Chapter 5

**YIIIKKKKKEEESSS! Sorry everyone! I missed the update. Kinda played some cards with some friends last night/morning and then ended up staying up til like 3 am doing E&amp;M Homework and reading FFN! I forgot that I update this yesterday into today and not today into tomorrow. XD**

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**Review Responses:**

**Lucario:** Nope, that's just her Aura Merge kicking in. Dr. Cossack is dead by the time this story happens. So unless we reanimate the dead... XD

**terratasha: **XD Slur is always here to mess with someone. Brothers and sisters are everywhere. Welp, except in the case of only children. We just have blood brothers and sisters. Well it is now! XD

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**Chapter 5 - Who The Hell Do You Think I Am?**

When Pixel woke up, she hadn't expected for there to be no one in sight. Then again, she hadn't really thought she would have woken up outside her room either. Had she been wandering around again in her sleep? She didn't feel like she had but her body felt like total crap. The magenta navi soon found herself back up on her feet as she started to look around. No, she had never seen this network ever before. Though she had to admit, it was a very pretty place.

As she looked around, she kept on having this feeling like this place was a little too nice. Sure there were broken pillars all over the place, but she felt like something was out of place. Like something else was trying to draw her out. She didn't know exactly why she felt this way, but for once she couldn't feel Dark Pixel trying to gnaw her way out. The dark dragon's presence was almost gone, but still active on account that her mark was still over Pixel's emblem.

The magenta navi took a few steps forward before making a sharp turn behind her. She could have sworn that she had heard something. It had been silent and had disappeared just as fast as it had appeared. Suddenly, the navi's common sense rang in her head as she tried to connect to her PET and jack herself out. But of course, the connection to her device had been severed and there was no way she could just leave. But then, where was the entrance?

Pixel started sprinting down one of the directions, hoping that she had chosen the right way. However, she soon found out that the way she had gone was none other than a dead end. But it wasn't the total stop that had her turn on her heels faster than she ever had before. No, that had something to do with the blood red version of her that had been staring amusingly at her once she had turned the corner. Her eyes were slit and her grin were as unnerving as ever. Although she hadn't seen her originally without her cybeast form, Pixel knew for certain that the person she had saw was _her_.

The navi turned a corner and started sprinting once again. She needed to get out of there. She just wanted to go home!

"_**Home is where for you again? Last time I checked, you don't have one. Don't you remember that you are nothing more than a time bomb waiting to go off. That place you call home is nothing more than a storage for you before you explode,"**_ The dark soul's voice echoed in her head despite the sound actually ringing throughout the network.

"Shut up," Pixel responded as she tried not to focus on her and just find another way out. If she could get back out on the Net, she could make it. She just needed to make it out. When she had freaked out earlier, she had almost slipped back into her downward spiral. But Mom had drawn her back. Kei had brought her back. The brunette had tied her down and made her promise to start believing in herself again. Mom had reminded her to believe in her family who believed in her. She couldn't….no wouldn't let them down.

She couldn't let _her…Drag…._Dragar win.

"'_**Cause you know, you don't have a family anymore. You do remember what happened last night right? Someone came after you, looking for me. By the time we had been taken, both blue boys were lying on the ground and little pinky had her work cut out for her. And to think she tried so hard to save you. Wonder how she got deleted." **_Dark Pixel prattled on as Pixel ran into her once again after heading down another dead end.

The magenta navi shut her ears as she ran down another road, this time progressing even deeper into the network. '_Shut her out! They're not dead! I know they're not! Don't let her get to you!'_ Pixel thought rapidly as her feet kept moving.

Unknown to her, a white navi smirked as she waved her hands as even more Dark Pixels began to surface. This dark soul was quite powerful for Slur to manipulate it like this. But then again, that's why she needed it active. She needed it to catch that damned fool's attention. She wasn't going to sit back idly and watch as Duo refused to come and destroy Earth for its transgressions. If he wouldn't respond to a flare, she would create a wild fire.

Slur's red eyes darted to the left as she spotted the pink navi, Trace, looking out from the entrance of Secret Area 3. The white navi had informed her that she was to stand guard in front of the area in case her "mother" had escaped. But in reality, that wasn't the real reason. See, Pixel had no other choice but to head toward Secret Area 3 on the account that Slur had blocked off the exit that headed towards the first area.

Pixel was a fighter, that much she could tell from such an aggressive dark soul. All she needed was a nudge or so in the right direction and she would go berserk on her own. However, she wasn't aware of her triggers. It was the only reason why she had bothered to help Dark Pixel manifest herself in the area. Normally, she could summon shadows of the navi in question to attack. The presence of a dark soul would increase that shadow's ability in battle. And a dark soul like Dark Pixel, well….this shadow was pretty much its own navi.

"_**But I guess, that maybe it was for the better anyway. I mean, even if they did survive its better for them if they don't come looking for you. You would probably just unleash me again!"**_ Dragar cackled as this time another shadow appeared in front of Pixel, grabbing her by the neck.

Slur raised an eye. This wasn't what she had had in mind. The dark soul was aware that if she hurt her that she would also destroy her chances at living right?

Dark Pixel threw the navi on the ground. However, to the dark soul's disgust, the magenta navi tried to stand back up again as if she was planning to make another break for it. The red Pixel once again sent her careening back down to the ground with a loud thud and the second Pixel tried to stand again, a kick to her gut sent her back down to the ground, "_**It's funny. I thought you would be more amusing at this. 'They're not dead! They'll come look for me!' Blah, blah, blah. But you haven't changed one bit since you've talked to Kei!"**_

This time Pixel was actually allowed to get up….before a right cross to the head had her stagger backwards. The magenta navi was fairly certain she had heard a crack. But now her whole mind was in a disarray. Everything was blurry and distorted. Dark Pixel's voice was ringing in her head. But even that was nothing more than a harsh wind blowing around her.

"_Promise me! Promise that you won't give up on yourself!_"

"_I believe you can fight her; that's why she hurts you so much. She's scared that she'll lose to you. Remember that even your own darkness fears you as much as you fear it."_

She had promised them. She couldn't scare her like that again. She couldn't give up on them or herself. Dad and Mom had been through worse than whatever her kidnappers could do. Stream may have been a bit more geeky, but he was tough when it counted. They weren't dead which meant that they _would_ be looking for her. The most she could do was not give up on them. She couldn't give up on herself. No, she was done with that. She loved them too much to let them find her as broken as she was before. She had fought before and she still could. When Dark Pixel had first "jumped" into the cyber world, she had felt for certain that it was over. But it couldn't be if everyone was still trying so hard to help her. She had lost her hope allowing darkness to overtake her, but if she still fought then perhaps she could at least buy herself enough time to get back home.

Pixel gritted her teeth as her hands balled. She was scared beyond her belief. Afraid of what she could do if even a fraction of Dragar's power was ever unleashed. But she wasn't the only one living in fear. When she thought about it, it made sense. Dragar was aggressive by nature, but as she gained more power she tried more and more to take over. And unlike Dark Roll and Dark Hub, Dark Pixel would just try to take over her soul rather than just take control of her body. Like the cybeasts, Dragar had been trying to corrupt and take over. She hadn't been just trying to use Pixel, she was trying to become Pixel. If the magenta navi was even able to fight back, then Dragar's plans would be disrupted. So, maybe it was time to give her a nightmare.

Since Dark Pixel was "disconnected" from her, the dark navi wasn't able to tell that even past the attacks, Pixel was rejecting every last word she said. The magenta navi's green eyes flashed dangerously.

"_**So, what is it now navi? Do you give up? In the long run, it probably be better for you just to go unconscious and let me take over. Perhaps it'll spare you for the pain of all this. After all, you know how easy it would be for me to do that in the state you're in. I know you're still rattled from earlier. All it would take is a little push."**_ Dark Pixel smirked as she looked at the downed navi.

However, as the magenta navi picked herself up once more, the dark soul growled violently. Her eyes. Those damned eyes! She had seen those green orbs twinkle with the one thing a dark soul hated most. Light.

Light meant hope. Hope meant resistance. And resistance meant doing things the hard way. The dark soul grabbed her by the throat again, "_**Didn't you hear me? You'll turn back into me one way or the other! You don't have a choice in the matter!"**_

"Your terms….or….mine," the magenta navi said back as the dark soul looked back at her appalled. This was not happening. Pixel coughed for a few moments before staring back at her, "As long as I have power, I'm not letting you out. You're right. I'm terrified. I'm so scared of you that there were days that I wanted nothing more than o overload and call my life quits! But I know what you'll do once you get out. And currently, I'm the only one that's able to control you."

"_**Control is putting it lightly. You're more like a rusty lock waiting to fall off."**_ Dark Pixel retorted, though for once she actually felt like she was pushed back.

Pixel walked closer to her, "Fine. But like it or not, you aren't getting out! I've put up with enough of you for four years of my life and I'm sick of it! I've made one mistake in trying to shoulder you just for the sake of it! Now…." the magenta navi chuckled, "Well, I guess they've always been there. I was just being blind to it. Rejecting them every time they talked to me. Believing I was alright when your nightmares tore me apart. But I guess I still have time left to start making up for it."

Dark Pixel laughed, "_**You think what you do now will make a difference. You are nothing more than a vessel for me. A power conduit to fulfill my goals! YOU ARE A NAVI! A TOOL AND NOTHING MORE!" **_Dark Pixel's red eyes glared down at her.

However, the magenta navi did the one thing she had never expected her to do. Pixel got up in her face, a fire she had thought was gone blazed in her green eyes. She was through with her and her lies and her dreams and her everything!

Pixel bravely got right in the face of Dark Pixel, "My name is Pixel Hikari. I may have you in my systems but I'm not a time bomb. I'm not your vessel. You may be my dark soul, but you aren't me. I am who I am! You're the only one doesn't seem to get it! I'm not your puppet and I'm not you! It's about time I show you what happens when you push a girl past her breaking point!

"Just who the hell do you think I am, Dragar!"

The dark soul disappeared faster than even Slur could see. However, before the white navi could react, she could feel the ground shaking. Even from Trace's perch, the pink navi could see that the epicenter of the quake was happening around Pixel.

**"AAAAHHHHH!"** The magenta navi yelled as a second set of marks were added in the opposite direction of the first. Soon even pieces of her bodysuit showed the three dragon claws on it.

Even Slur was slightly disturbed. Dark Pixel was forcefully trying to take control over her lighter half's body. Apparently, being talked to like that had..._angered_ her into a stage of rage so intense that she doubted that even the dark cybeast herself knew what she was doing. Pixel seemed to fighting back her transformation into her darker self, but Slur was unsure of whether the navi could hold her back long enough for her to have any power left. The navi tossed and turned on the ground that she had crumpled onto, reminding Slur of a human having a seizure.

Moments passed and finally after a minute Pixel stopped moving. Parts of the cybeast's armor had formed on her being, but for the most part she seemed to be herself. Not that she had any energy left. That outburst had cost both sides of her the energy they needed. Both Dark Pixel and Pixel herself were unconscious. Slur picked up the half transformed and floated over to Secret Area 3.

"Wait! Where are you taking her?" Trace asked concerned about the answer she herself had for her question.

Slur turned to her, "Your mother's cell."

* * *

"Geez Mom, how hard did you hit the guy?" Stream asked as he and his Mom sat still waited for their _friend_ to finally wake up. The navi had been soundly beaten by his mom shortly after his allies had gotten away with Pixel. Unfortunately, she had been a little too livid and managed to knock out the navi with a single Gale Push.

"Not hard enough," the pink navi grumbled. The cyan navi grimaced. He had never seen his mom this upset before. But then again, he couldn't blame her. What kind of mother would she be if she wasn't like this? Pixel had been taken from her when she had been in the room with her!

Stream shook his head and opened up a window, "Hey Patch, has Uncle Lan said anything about Dad yet?" The commotion on the network soon had all parties of the Hikari household up. Of course, Aunt Mayl was helping Kei since for a while all the girl had done was press buttons on her PET hoping that it would connect back or find Pixel. Uncle Lan in the mean time was helping to repair Dad since he had gotten hurt from his earlier fight. Sometime after he woke up, Stream knew Mom had went to see him. But since she was back here, Dad was probably fine.

"No, guess he's still knocked out. Man, that navi must have been pretty tough," Patch commented as he responded back to his cousin's question. He had woken up shortly after the realization of Pixel's kidnapping was announced.

Stream nodded solemly, "Or at least organized. Keep us occupied and then the others take Pixel. Though why would they need her? It's not like she has anything for them to use. No one is crazy enough anymore to mess with Dark Power so that can't be the reason." The navi thought aloud.

"You'd be surprised," Mom said as the cyan navi turned to her, "People use anything at their grasps when backed into a corner." The pink navi said staring off into space before shaking her head and looking back at the brown and black navi in front of them.

Her son grimaced, "Yeah I guess you're right. But Dragar's so….unstable. Why would anyone want her to do anything? The minute she gets out all she's going to do is delete everything in sight until she runs out of energy."

The pink navi merely stood up. Stream hadn't noticed this, but his mom's hands were still balled up into fists. It seemed like even about an hour and a half later and she still hadn't cooled down even by a smidge, "I don't know, but…." Mom trailed off before shaking her head, "Sorry Stream. I don't mean to be like this in front of you. Can you call me when he wakes up please?"

"Yeah sure," he said as his mom thanked him and jacked out.

Patch looked on at the scene, even slightly unnerved himself, "Either she's half past pissed or she really thinks that he's going to be knocked out for another hour." He commented.

"Maybe a bit of both," The cyan navi confirmed. It wasn't like his mom didn't trust him, but rather she probably didn't want to snap at him when he didn't deserve it.

"I'd say it's more of the first option," a voice said, catching the NetOp and navi off guard, "Geez, I've been playing dead for at least an hour. I was wondering when she was ever going to leave."

"You're awake!" Patch said surprised.

The brown navi struggled to sit up, "Yeah, I have been for a while now. Man….your mom hits hard kid." He said as he smirked, "Look, I know you're about to call her back in her and I swear if you do I'll start playing dead again. I've got too many years of experience to have her break me. Which is why I'll only talk to you."

Stream glared at the navi, "And why would you only talk to me?" He asked, already suspicious of the navi.

The brown navi smiled, "Easy, 'cause your mom would kill me before I even got a word out. Though I can't saw I was the perfect talker to her earlier. I was kinda asking for it. You, despite it being your sister, at least to still have your head on. The name's Strike."

"Blame the "scientist" in him. Manages to be objective about everything even under stress," Patch snickered low enough for only him and Stream to hear.

The cyan navi glanced annoyedly at his NetOp before looking back at Strike, "So why'd you take my sister? And by the way, yes I actually am upset you took her despite the lack of visible anger."

Strike nodded sadly, "Believe me I get it. The one who took your sister is my sister. I know family is important. And trust me, we wouldn't have done anything if we didn't have to. We live in Undernet. Haven't been topside for quite sometime until today when that stupid white navi showed up at our place. She's got our mom locked up and there's nothing we can do. She's just too strong for either me or Trace to take. After all, you saw what she did to your dad. Or at least heard about it."

The brown and black navi shook his head as Stream and Patch listened, "It's all so messed up. And sorry to burst your bubble, but Slur said she wanted your sister for her Dark Power. I have no idea what she's planning on using her for, but Trace said that she was giving off an unbelievable amount. I still can't believe our dark souls didn't do anything."

Patch's eyes widened, "You guys have dark souls? But even Aunt Roll didn't say anything about it! It's not like she wouldn't have noticed right?" Dark Pixel had been a one time occurrence….right?

"Yeah, but we haven't really been….it's a weird process." The look he got from Stream actually surprised him. He actually seemed to be waiting for the long version. Strike sighed, "See, when we found our mom in the Undernet, she gave us some program that she had used in order to control the Giga Freeze program called Power Burner. She said that the Giga Freeze was too powerful when Dr. Hikari originally put it into the Undernet and so there had to be another program to burn the excess energy aware in order to stop it from freezing the whole net. But when she gave that program to Megaman, the Power Burner was just left around for no one to use. So, she let us use it!" Strike summed up.

"Wait….you said your mom had the Giga Freeze program and gave it to Uncle Hub and Dad. But, then that mean's that your mom is…." Patch gaped as the realization hit him.

Strike raised an eyebrow, "Serenade . EXE." Really, why were people so surprised when he said that? She could be a nice person too.

Suddenly, Stream raised his head from his thoughts, ignoring the previous proclamation, "You said that that Power Burner program was able to burn off the excess Giga Freeze energy?" The cyan navi asked.

Strike nodded, "At least that's what Mom told me."

"You have any idea who it was made by?" Stream asked, suddenly becoming more and more giddy. The problem had always been that they had never been able to lower Dark Pixel's energy without lowering Pixel's. But what if the program here could be adapted to target only Dark Power?

Strike scratched his head, "Uh…. I think Mom told me. Something with light….uh…..Dr. Night Light. Dr. Sun Light. Uh….oh wait! I got it! Mom told me that the Power Burner was created by….well I guess she's infamous now but it was created by a Dr. Dawn Silverlight."

* * *

Serenade growled as Slur came back in. Apparently, the white navi had decided to check in on Pixel. Her transformation had faded and the navi had woken up a few times only to fall back into the realm of unconsciousness seconds later. Trace had been assigned to watching the entrance of Secret Area 1 and would stay there if she wanted to avoid Slur's wrath. The dark skinned navi glared through the bars. Stupid things, she really should have gotten rid of some of the old things around here.

"How is she?" Slur asked, in a nonchalant voice of sorts.

Serenade merely held the magenta navi closer to her and turned her back towards from the white navi, "She would be better if you stopped coming in to check on her." She grumbled. The magenta navi finally had just gotten the most peaceful look on her face some time ago. Serenade really would have hated to see it go so soon. From the sounds of things, it seemed as if she had been through a lot.

Slur rolled her eyes, "What does it matter? I merely need to know whether or not she is awake yet. I didn't not ask for your opinion of her state beyond this." The navi said.

Serenade growled, "Yes, overseer. No, she obviously isn't awake and probably won't be for a while after whatever you did to her!" She yelled, though immediately regretted it after the navi shifted in her sleep. '_Sorry'_ she thought as if she could hear her.

Slur shook her head, "The mighty Underking reduced to nothing but a mommy. It must be horrible for you. So much power and here you are. Confined to this place merely because you decided to let a couple of navis become children to you. Oh how you have fallen."

The dark skinned navi turned her head, "You're wrong. Rather, it taught me more than you would ever know, watcher. I bet all you do is judge. But perhaps your precious Duo hasn't returned to you because he trust someone else other than you."

"Watch your tongue, navi!" Slur retorted back. The insult burned her on the inside. But was there truth behind it. He had ignored her by not destroying this world in the first place and now he once again blocked out her messages as if to saw that her opinion of the planet no longer mattered.

"Yeah, that's probably it. He thinks that someone else has a better judgement that you do. Perhaps it's because you are so objective. You think everything is in black and white. But there is more to the world than that. Sure there is wrong and right, but sometimes what we must do is muddle in between those lines. But only people whose power is mercy can ever understand that. Learning your enemies and being able to show that love, that bond, is what makes these people the most honorable." Serenade turned back to the navi in her arms as she closed her eyes.

"Before you, there we're only two navis who had ever defeated me. One who wanted power to defeat those who hurt him and pushed everyone else who he deemed unworthy away. He was one who had lost trust in those around him and learned to only believe in himself, thus increasing his power but never maxing it. He understood mercy and practiced it in the most unusual ways. He never attacked those who were weaker than him. Perhaps more so, he didn't want to become the monster he seeked to destroy.

"And then there was another, who also understood mercy. But he was the living incarnate of it. Always fighting to move forward and to allow to keep his loved ones smiling. Never have I met a more merciful navi. And now I sit here, defeated by one who barely understands what I'm saying. Perhaps my battle skills have dulled a bit since no one has come by this place in years. But taking on those kids was my best decision in years. I was created to be a comfort to a child who had no hope, but I lost that chance to ensure that he had a future to find it. And now I have a second chance." Serenade said confidently. If given a second chance, she knew she would be able to defeat this shameful navi. But for now, she would have to rest until she was ready.

Slur stepped back, shocked and disturbed by the navi's words, "You're right. I don't understand what you say. But it won't matter in a while. Megaman and his family while surely be here soon to recover her. I can only hope that they act the same as you."

Serenade's eyes widened as she turned, "Then you mean….this navi is….Megaman's daughter?"

Slur nodded quickly, "I must leave to make preparations." She said as she took one more look at Pixel, "The next time I return, it will be for her whether or not she is awake. I must create the beacon." The white navi said in silence as she hovered away without saying another word.

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Update: Friday (Next Week...)

Ghost: I think I have yet to create Slur in a likable setting. XD


	7. Chapter 6

**Review Responses**

**Lucario:** A very long way.

**Cindy M 19:** Don't mess with her kids!

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**Chapter 6 - ****Final Routine, Set, Execute!**

"So, what do you guys think?" Stream asked his uncle and father. Despite Strike's protests, he had gotten the navi to agree to be awake in front of the Hikari family. Surprisingly, Mom hadn't seemed as if she was about to murder him or she was just that good at holding it in. Or perhaps, the navi's actual reasons for attacking had taken the anger out of her. The cyan navi wasn't quite sure yet what it was just yet.

Lan nodded slowly, "It makes sense. I might be able to make a replica of the Power Burner, but we still won't be able to differentiate Pixel's power from Dark Pixel's. Which means we would be back to square one."

Stream shook his head, "That's what I thought to. But look, Trace and Strike haven't been weakened like their dark souls have been. Which means one thing, this program has either been changed or the energy source it can weaken a specified target."

"Hmm, I don't think an alteration would have happened. We may be able see errors, but navis can't program and I don't think Serenade really has left the Secret Area since I've been there. Also, after the Giga Freeze program was given to me, the Power Burner should've been obsolete so no one would have tried to work on it." Megaman noted though a proud smile couldn't help but make its way through. Sometimes he wondered how Stream somehow didn't make his way into the lab and actually command the place.

"Well, we'll at least be able to figure everything out once I take a look at this program." Lan said as the files finished copying from Strike's code.

The brown and gray navi looked awkwardly at the Hikaris, "I….uh….look I'm sorry about all of this. Like I said, we felt like we didn't have any choice. We really didn't want to have to kidnap Pixel. I can take you straight to the Secret Area to make it up to ya. I don't know what good it'll do, but it'll make me feel better." Strike said solemnly.

Roll gave him a stare before nodding, "As much as I don't like what you've done, I….I guess I can see why you did it. It's hard to do the right thing when you're loved ones are in danger." Besides, who was she to judge? Even though she hadn't done anything like kidnapping, she had been prepared to break into SciLab just for the sake of saving Hub when he was in danger of dying. In a less dramatic sense, they were the same."

Megaman smiled at his wife. He knew how much she loved both Stream and Pixel and that both of them would risk their lives for both of them. He turned to the brown and black navi, "You know any shortcuts back home?"

Strike smirked, "I think I can get you there pretty quickly."

* * *

Slur finally felt herself cool off after walking away from the navi. Having her mom be an upstart was enough of a problem already, but her "kid" was even more of an annoyance. The pink navi had gone off on her as soon as she appeared as if she had suddenly gotten a backbone to her. Or maybe her mother had managed to get a word in while she had been waiting on Slur's arrival from the Hikari network.

Well, that didn't matter now on the note that she was practically a data spot on the ground now. Which only meant that she was down a guard. No matter, she would just have to escalate her plans a tad earlier.

The white navi entered Secret Area 3, walked over to the bars, and deactivated them, "Give her up, Serenade." Slur demanded in an even voice.

"And what if I don't want to," the dark skinned navi said, though this time she noticed that the magenta body next to her tense. Yep, that navi was awake which could only prove out to be quite useful to her.

Slur held up a hand, "Let her go before I blast you both. I'm sure Pixel would survive the blast, but I don't know about you in your condition." The white navi said and fired a Meteor Strike just to show that she wasn't lying about trying to obliterate them.

She jumped to the side as Serenade's Sonic Boom countered the attack and managed to shield both navis but the smoke that had come from her attack had done exactly what she had wanted it to do. As it cleared, both navis looked up at a rather murderous looking Dark Pixel. Yep, still very much angry at her defeat earlier, she grabbed the magenta navi straight from out of Serenade's arms and pulled her close to her.

A Dark Sword was soon at the navi's neck and Dark Pixel's blood red eyes glared at Serenade, "**Try to save her and I kill her."**

The dark skinned navi gulped as she tried to think of a plan when another Meteor Strike landed on the ground. Slur slipped past everyone and then grabbed the navi. However, she was surprised when the one she had was also holding her. Dark Pixel glowered at Slur as her hold over the white navi's neck tightened.

"**Seperate. Us."** Dragar demanded. She knew what kind of risk she was running and that it was more than likely impossible. But she wasn't about to be condemned to some second rate existence. She had been trying for hours to take over Pixel. To give her an image or just anything and hadn't been able to get anywhere. For once, she didn't have a hold over her. And that was something she couldn't stand.

Slur choked as Pixel backed away from the scene, though the way Dark Pixel was standing was separating her from Serenade, "Wh-at?"

**"You heard me. You can already project me like a dark soul and if I heard right you are working for Duo. He can separate dark souls from their hosts at will. On some scale, you have that power yes?" **Dark Pixel reasoned.

Slur shook her head as best as she could, "Impossible. I can't- Hrgh!" She said as Dark Pixel continued holding her throat.

The dark soul growled at her, **"It's not! If it was, I couldn't be here right now! The girl may have been knocked out but I noticed what you did back at the Hikari network! You manipulated Dark Power! That's probably why Dark Hub's hold on that blue navi was draining instead of being amplified! When you make us "shadows", we are the embodiment of the dark soul you wish to show. You use our very energy, don't you?"**

Slur tried to make her Meteor Wire or a sword, but Dark Pixel's eyes kept on preventing her from doing so. She had heard that the reason field mice never ran from snakes was because their glare paralyzed them with fear. And literally being held in such a vulnerable position was causing her to actually fear the dark soul in front of her.

**"Do it or I'll make you. Use all of my energy and rip me out of her!"** Dark Pixel yelled out. However, the reason why finally hit Pixel. If Slur was able to get Dark Pixel out of her, the dark soul would become its own navi. Not only that, but she would kill Pixel in the process.

It was the same reason why Dad's and Mom's dark souls could never be separated from them. They were too interconnected that disconnecting them would effectively destroy most of their code in the process, leaving them pretty much on the verge of deletion. The amount of time it would take to fix that would be days and with a core so badly damaged a navi could only survive at max of about a minute. Instant deletion.

"Won't….do…." Slur groaned as she began to fade in and out of consciousness. At least after she fainted, Dark Pixel would be unable to hold her form and-.

The white navi's eyes flew open as she felt the sword pierce through her body. Dark Pixel smiled madly as she soon found her program, the Shadow Purge. It seemed pretty high tech and even she would be crazy to try and download it without knowing how to use it. But she knew someone who did.

The dark soul turned back to her lighter half, **"This is goodbye. Rest in tiny, tiny pieces of data."** Dark Pixel jabbed the program and Slur yelled out. Dark Pixel wasn't sure when Pixel had started screaming, but she definitely knew she was getting stronger. This time, she could actually feel her cybeast form returning to her. And then….after several minutes, it was over.

Dragar dropped Slur as her data merely fell apart and turned back to her former vessel. Pixel's eyes had vanished as more and more data leaked out of her. Her navi icon was completely shattered and even some pieces were left on the floor. Somehow the navi had survived the tear away. Dragar looked at the magenta navi surprised. But she merely shrugged. Even if she had managed to save enough data to prevent her from dying immediately, her fate was sealed. The navi had maybe ten minutes before she collapsed.

Dragar's tail picked up the magenta navi and flung her over to Serenade, "I'm done with her. Keep her as a pet fit for a dethroned king. I on the other hand have actual important matters to do."

The dark humanoid cybeast roared as the ground under her began to quake. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Serenade slip away. No matter, she wouldn't be able to escape when she literally turned the whole Net into a wasteland. The panels under Dragar began to turn black as she invoked more and more Dark Power. The cybeasts were quite the power boost that she had never gotten to enjoy because she kept on having to rely on Pixel's resources! Well not anymore now!

This...this was the end of the Net.

* * *

"Uh….please tell me that I'm crazy and the Net isn't shaking!" Strike said as he tried to keep his balance under the quaking ground. The navis had no sooner entered the Secret Area when the Net began to go crazy.

"What the heck is going on?" Stream asked no one in particular, as he and the other navis managed to catch their footing.

Lan shook his head as he ran over to another computer and started scanning through some data, "Unbelievable. The whole Net is experiencing the same quake!"

"It's Dragar. It has to be!" Roll said worriedly. '_Pixel, please be okay….'_ She thought sadly. This was her fault. She should have tried harder to stop her from being kidnapped. To stop her spiral into depression. To do _something_ for her!

'_**Who else to do you know that has a bunch of power just waiting to use? But I didn't think your daughter had this much energy! I knew I should've just deleted her!'**_ Dark Roll yelled as the pink navi tried to ignore her. She didn't need her on top of her own guilt right now.

Mayl quickly turned to Kei who seemed to be shattered by the conclusion and already beginning to have a fit, "Mom, she wouldn't! She...!"

The young brunette stammered before her mom merely pulled her towards her, "I know, Kei. I know." She wished she could get Kei to leave, but now that would be all but possible since the young child would want nothing other than to see Pixel.

Patch looked at Stream as he and the other navis finally found themselves able to move forward, "Hey, Stream. Is it just me or does this seem a little much for even Dragar? If Dad's right, then she's affecting the whole Net. Not just a single area."

Stream nodded already thinking along the same lines, "She could have gotten stronger, but Pixel doesn't have the power to do all this. Since they're both tied together, Dragar can't over extend Pixel's own ability." The cyan navi looked towards his father as the blue navi remained silent as they ran. Did he already know? He and Uncle Lan had been working very hard to try and weaken the dark soul since separating them would be a massive mistake. Surely he had to understand just the limitations Pixel had.

However, his thoughts were broken as he heard Strike yell out, "Trace!" The brown and grey navi ran even faster and skidded down in front of the pink and green navi, "Trace! Come on!" He pleaded with the navi. She seemed very much worse for wear, but luckily it seemed as if she had managed to only go unconscious.

After a few moments, the navi's eyes fluttered open, "...Strike? Stop yelling." The female navi said tiredly.

Strike let out a sigh of relief, "Good, you're still alive. I thought I was going to be down a sister."

"Yeah, like I could let anyone else be your sister. Besides, she'd get too annoyed with you," Trace joked before her eyes fell on the Hikaris, "Oh….you brought them here?" She asked. Her brother merely nodded as the pink navi looked at, "I guess I'm sorry is a little too late huh? I'm sure he told you what happened to us."

Megaman nodded, "I'm guessing Slur did this?" He said, even his voice gave him away. It wasn't angry no, it was concerned. A very, very, very concerned voice. Stream pursed his lips; yep, Pixel was in serious trouble.

Trace nodded solemnly, "She got mad after I started talking about her being no better than the dark souls she was trying to get Duo to kill. Guess I hit a nerve cause the last thing I remember were meteors flying from the sky. She should've gone to the back of this area. But I guess whatever plan she had in mind is in motion." The pink navi said as she tried to bring herself back up to her feet.

Roll looked at the others, "Come on! Strike, get your sister and just get out of here! We'll find Serenade and bring her back."

"You're….you're letting us go? But…" Trace started before Strike stopped her and shook his head.

Roll merely looked at the female navi, "I'm not angry, well at you. You two are just like Pixel and Stream in a way, and I can't stay mad at them for too long. Never works out." She said, giving them a sad smile, "Just go. Even if its back to our network. Just get out of here before things get worse."

Strike nodded, however before he was about to leave, he noticed someone running in their direction, "MOM!" The brown navi yelled happily and what was even better was that the ground had stopped shaking! However, like everyone else, his face fell as he realized who in fact she was carrying, "Oh no…."

Serenade ceased to halt and though she wanted nothing more to do than give her kids a hug, there was something more important to do. She walked over to the pink navi, wow they both looked a like. Serenade opened her mouth as she handed Pixel over, "I think she's still alive, but….she's not doing very well."

"Pixel!" Kei yelled as she quickly pressed a few buttons on her PET. The device, upon connection, blared loudly. Pixel was literally on the verge of deletion.

"What the hell happened?" Megaman yelled as Roll tried to heal whatever damage she could.

Serenade shook her head, "I don't really know. Slur came back demanding that Pixel be given to her and she summoned one of those shadows. Only the shadow wasn't going for Pixel. She told Slur to rip her out of her. At first Slur refused, but then….the shadow made her do it. Pixel's been like that since they got seperated. I'm sorry, Megaman."

"Separated?" the blue navi repeated as Lan managed to get his daughter's PET out of her shaking hands.

The man connected it to the computer and began to type in a few commands, "Damn! It's almost exactly what we thought would happen. Only Pixel is better than we thought she would be. It seems like clinging to her Surge System managed to give her enough power to live for now. But she's losing a lot of data." Lan said as he pressed keys on the keyboard, looking for any kind of way to save her.

"Mom…." the magenta navi said weakly. Apparently, the energy had just been enough to at least wake her up. Although what should've been horrible pain almost felt like a dull tapping to Pixel, "It's you….right mom?"

Roll swallowed hard as she tried to focus on helping her daughter, "Yeah….yeah it's me. We're all here, Pix. Dad, Stream, Patch, Mayl, Lan, and Kei."

"Serenade too?" Pixel asked, still too weak to even move around.

The pink navi was having a hard time keeping tears from her eyes, "She's here too."

"Mom...don't be mad at her kids. They were just….just trying to help her." Pixel spoke weakly. She could feel herself beginning to dissipate. It wouldn't be much longer before she actually would start being deleted.

"I won't. Listen, just be quiet now okay?" Roll said, "You need as much power as you can save okay?"

Pixel, of course, didn't listen and continued talking, "Hey Kei….you should've seen it….I kept my promise. Dragar tried to….tried to take over. I didn't let her."

The brown haired girl's eyes widened. She looked up to her mother who merely guided her over to her PET while her father worked on trying to save her navi's, her cousin's, life. Mayl nodded at her, as if prodding her to say something, "Thank you….but….just….DON'T LEAVE ME!" Kei cried, "You can't die! I don't want another navi! I don't want another cousin because no one would be you! I can't….I can't…." The girl ran out of words as she merely started to ball into her mother's night dress.

Pixel coughed for a moment, "Hey….don't cry….I'm tired of tears. I….I already did that….if you do it….then you're a copycat." The magenta navi joked as Lan seemed to almost want to throw the computer.

Mayl looked at him concerned as he sighed, "Her body's too weak. With all that Dark Power gone, she doesn't have the stress on her system but she doesn't have enough power left to stay alive. If we had something to substitute in for it, then she might have a chance. But…."

"You mean, there's nothing we can do?" Stream breathed hard. No….he couldn't lose Pixel. She was the one who did everything crazy and somehow came out stronger from it. She couldn't die….not like this.

"Nothing you can. But I can…." Trace said as a small blue orb appeared in her hand, "I never got a chance to give it to you, Mom."

"You found it?" Serenade asked as she grabbed the object from Trace, "Wait, this is perfect! Megaman, your NetOp said you needed a substitute for the Dark Power right?"

Megaman looked quickly at her, "You have one?" The navi asked hopefully.

Serenade nodded, "It's Holy Power. This is a small amount, but it might do the trick until she's better!" The dark skinned navi said handing it over to him.

"Lan, you think you can program this into Pixel?" the blue navi asked as he transferred the orb to the computer his NetOp was using.

"It'll only take a couple of seconds. I've looked at her core data enough to write it in my sleep!" the man said as he worked quickly. In about a minute, he stopped typing and pressed a button, "Let's just hope this works."

One….two….three….

Pixel's eyes snapped awake as she suddenly gasped. Her navi icon shined for a moment before returning back to its former pre-Dragar form. Well, that was a jolt! After she caught herself, she looked at her family who looked as if their "hearts" stopped, "You know, if you guys don't stop looking at me like that your faces are going to get stuck that way." She remarked.

"PIXEL!" She heard everyone yell as her mom pulled into a tight hug.

"Gah! Mom! Can't breath!" The magenta navi choked out as she was once again greeted by more hugs from her father, Stream, and even Serenade for some reason, "Someone! Help! Please! Why did you bring me back to life to kill me again?" She asked as the pressure on her finally disappeared.

"Don't you dare do that to us again!" Roll said, tears going down her cheeks.

Pixel nodded, "I won't. I didn't like it very much anyway." Once again, causing her mom to stop balling again. Her little Pixel was back to the way she was always meant to be. How long had this been the only thing she had hoped for?

As Pixel turned her head, she faked being shocked, "What? Dad not you too! I expect Mom to be crying. Heck, I'd even expect Stream to! You're supposed to be the tough one!"

"Ah, be quiet you," Megaman said with nothing much relief in his voice.

Stream merely smiled, not even paying attention to the jab, "Welcome back, sis."

"Pixel!" Kei said as the magenta navi opened a window and saw her cousin beaming at her along with the rest of the family.

Pixel gave them a mock frown, "All of you guys too? Wow, I must be that good."

"You almost died and you thought none of us would cry over that?" Kei asked incredulously while Pixel just laughed.

The magenta navi shook her head as she managed to get up, "Nah, though I would just come back as a ghost and still clown you all about it."

"Good grief, she reminds me of you Strike," Trace said as she rolled her eyes.

"Me, like her? You've got to be kidding me!" Strike argued back despite the look he was getting from both female navis in his family.

Serenade slightly jabbed him, "All you would have to do is ask. She's a nice girl."

Strike groaned, "Mommm…."

**"Well look who picked the wrong spot to have a kodiac moment,"** a familiar dark voice snarled. Dark Pixel's slitted eyes seem to get even narrower, **"Oh great. You're still alive. And here I thought I would actually have an enjoyable time killing everyone here."**

Each navi in the area tensed. Dark Pixel cocked her head,** "What? No little retort? No, 'You'll never get away with this' or 'You'll pay for what you did to her'? Seriously, you people are no fun."**

"I've got one. How about shut up?" Pixel growled as her mom but her hand on her. However she turned to the pink navi and looked her mom dead in her eye, "Mom, she's my dark soul. I've got to be the one to take care of her."

Stream looked at his sister like she was a beast navi with three heads, "You do remember that you almost died right? Even if you still have your Surges, there isn't any way you can beat her in your state!"

"Pixel, your brother is right. Just get out of here!" Megaman said, stepping in front of her.

But Pixel merely reached out and grabbed his hand, "I know you're scared about me Dad. But I can't keep letting her have the last word. Besides the Surges aren't the only thing I've got. Hey Uncle Lan, you left the programming for the Surges and Beast Out in the PET right?"

"Uh….yeah," The man said, not quite sure where the conversation was going. It had been easier to leave the abilities installed because if they weren't then Dragar had a habit of trying to force them through. The results were less than pleasant.

**"Oh is this happening? 'Cause I really hope it is,"** Dragar remarked snidely and was almost ready to start clapping.

Pixel ignored her, "Dad believe in me. I can beat her. She can't control me anymore. I've given up being depressed. I let her control me because I thought there wasn't a way out for me. That I was going to be stuck to her forever. But I guess sometimes when there isn't a way out, you just have to make one….right?"

Trace was the one who broke the silence, "You're right, Strike. She's too smart to be like you."

Megaman shook his head as his wife nodded, though her actions seemed to more than reluctant. And even out of the corner of his eye, he could see his brother and his wife too looking at him. He had to let her do this, not matter how much he wanted to take care of her himself, "Alright." He said as he allowed his arm to drop.

As she stepped forward, she turned behind her, "You all might want to step back." She said as she closed her window to Kei, "It's been a while since we actually had a good fight. Let's make this fun, okay Kei?"

"Got it, Pixel! Battle Routine, Set!"

"Execute!"

* * *

**"You're coming at me with only your fists! That's a mistake!" **Dark Pixel mocked as she brought her claw down at the rushing magenta navi.

Pixel merely smirked, "That's what you think!" She said as she swung her fist. However, as the attacks collided, Dark Pixel was surprised to find that Pixel hadn't even budged an inch! The magenta navi smirked, "I'm not the only one who's upset about being tortured by you, Dragar. I'd like you to met the real Gregar and Falzar combination, Beast Out! Drazar!" She yelled out as a light soon encompassed her.

Soon the navi could see why their power had been even. Unlike her, Pixel's dragon beast was blue and white in coloration. The armor itself seemed a little less bulky as well, as if built for more speed than power. The navi's wings were made out of blue energy as her antennae blazed with fire.

**"That's not possible! I took the cybeast form away from you!" **Dragar roared.

"Wrong. You took your cybeast form away from me. When you ripped us apart, you forgot one thing. You only had access to anything corrupt in my system. There are two dragon forms. The more powerful corrupt version that you created by distorting the cybeasts and the true form that had be created in order for you to even have that power." Pixel smirked. She had begun to realize it after Serenade had started to carry her. She had felt the dragon roaring. It had also gotten hurt by Dark Pixel's departure but its data too had been keeping her alive; the power of one dying cybeast was incredible but two combined into one was even more so. And now the Holy Power had not only healed it, but tamed it too, "And when you stole Dad's Chaos Unison, you created two sets of Surges. One for you and one for me. I didn't know dark souls were so good at sharing!"

**"You….I HATE YOU! Scale Shooter!"** The dark soul yelled as she pulled out her buster and opened fired.

"Spine Vulcan!" Pixel said bringing out a vulcan and firing at the incoming projectiles, "Kei, I need a battle chip!"

"Coming your way! Thunder Surge! Elec Sword! Thunder Orb! Download!" Kei quickly imputed the chips as Pixel became a more yellow color and her arm became an electric blade.

Pixel ran forth only to have her attack intercepted by a Dark Sword. Dark Pixel smirked, **"Cute trick. But I've got one as well. Chaos Unison! Thunder Surge!"** The yellow navi pushed Dark Pixel back and took off towards the sky as the dark soul's bodysuit became more of a orange-brown color. '_Come on, a little closer!'_ Pixel thought as Dark Pixel flew right behind her. '_And….now!'_ "Thunder Orb!" Pixel threw a bright white orb that crackled with lightning. Thunder sounded as the attack smacked Dragar right in the face and exploded on her.

Despite being knocked back slightly, Dark Pixel recovered quickly and flew underneath the navi. The dark navi quickly swooped up and slammed directly into Pixel, **"Lightning Spike!"** She roared as several spots on the ground crackled only to surge with electricity that shot up like a geyser.

"Gah!" Pixel said as her wing was struck by one of the bolts and she lost control of her flight. The dark dragon grabbed her and soon had them both in a downward slope towards the ground. However, Pixel pushed the two towards the left causing both navis to enter a spiral towards the ground. At the last second, Pixel pulled herself as far as she could away from Dark Pixel's grasp which allowed her to turn them so that Dragar was the one who impacted on the ground.

"Kei now!" Pixel yelled as she began a nosedive down.

"Gaia Surge! Go Pixel!" Kei responded as her navi changed to a earthy green color.

Pixel smirked underneath her mouth guard, "Terra Crack!" She yelled as she managed to stop herself from impacting the ground with her face and instead punched into it. Dark Pixel had barely moved out of the way for the attack but was still blown back and slightly damaged from the shock waves that came from it. The ground underneath them had completely broken apart.

The light dragon quickly flew herself back up into the air as Dragar picked herself up from the ground. Her Thunder Surge had broken immediately after being hit by the wood elemental attack. Her red eyes seemed to blaze in rage. She hadn't even been able to land a solid blow on her and yet she was already damaged, **"This isn't happening. You aren't stronger than me! I am superior to you in every way!"**

"Maybe in power, but right now I've got more to lose than you. Which means I'll fight harder than you no matter what it takes!" Pixel responded. If she lost this fight, then she would be mocking everyone who believed that she could beat her. She would let them all down. She would have wasted the gift that Serenade and her family gave to her. And there was no way she going to allow that to happen, "I won't allow you to do what you did to me to anyone else! This fight ends today, Dragar!"

Something inside Dark Pixel seemed to mentally snap. She was losing...again...in the same day. No. No. No. NO. NO. **NO!** She wasn't going to allow this to happen. She had had the girl eating out of the palm of her claw earlier today. How the hell had she undone everything she had been trying to do to her all within one da?. Unless...unless somewhere deep down inside of her, this little wretch had been hiding waiting to explode!

Now she remembered why she had pressed so hard. The day after she had first claimed Pixel she had noticed a bright light in her core. She had tried to consume it and all she remembered was the pain of burning when she did. So she had tried to extinguish it. And for a while, it would only reduce its brilliance ever so slightly. So she tried again. And again. And again until one day it had finally dulled to a small light. But it had still been there. It would have only been a little while before Dark Pixel could have completely assimilated it. But something, someone had given it extra fuel to burn. And earlier had been when she realized that it had come back. The light had returned.

Dark Pixel said laughing, almost sounding insane. Maybe she was. Fine. If the light wasn't going to blown out by a small wind, she was going to destroy it in a category five hurricane! **"Oh really….you're going to stop me from killing this planet? Well then maybe its time I stopped playing around! I'll destroy you so completely that there won't even be enough garbage data of you to create a ghost! Dark Cannon! Dark Sword! Dark Bomb! Shadow Advance! Darkness Origin Blast!"** Dark Pixel roared as her hand charged with an unholy amount of Dark Power. The small buster on her hand was aimed directly at Pixel, **"Goodbye Pixel!"** She cackled as she fired her attack. As the shot reached its max charge, Secret Area turned into a dark purple and black environment. If one hadn't known it was Pixel she was pointing at, the attack would have been almost impossible to see.

"Pixel, I'm jacking you out! There's no way you can avoid that!" Kei yelled out as she reached for the button. But the brunette girl stopped when she realized that Pixel was shaking her head. Had she lost her marbles? She was going to die for sure if she didn't jack out now!

Pixel froze as her mind was consumed with a single word. Bugs. That was the only thing she could thing about. How everything could so easily bug by just one simple error. But maybe perhaps it was also the dragon cybeast in her. Gregar had been created from bugs; Falzar was made to combat it and thus was able to fight buggy programming without succumbing to it itself.

The magenta navi thought quickly, although time felt as if it had slowed down for her. Was Drazar trying to get her to use a bugged chip? But they were all Gigas and there was no way Kei had any. Pixel's arm pulsed for a moment as she began to see her arm bug for only a split microsecond. That was when an idea struck her, "Kei! Give me Thunder Orb, Big Bomb, and Variable Sword chips! Now!" Pixel said quickly. If she could work with a bug in her system, then maybe she would be able to pass that bug onto other things, "I know it's crazy but just do it!" She pleaded.

Kei nodded slowly, despite every fiber of her being wanting to jack her out. She needed to trust her, just like she had before. Otherwise, she would have been a liar when she told Pixel that she could beat Dragar. And there was no way she was going to let her cousin down now, "Thunder Orb! Big Bomb! Variable Sword! Download!"

Pixel took a breath as she allowed the cybeast's power to take over, "...Bug Conversion! Bug Thunder! Bug Bomb! Bug Sword! Override Advance!" She said as the combined head of Gregar and Falzar appeared on her hand. Somehow, despite the beast's power being active to the point of Beast Over, she had felt even more in control of it than ever before. Maybe it was because now the Holy Power was placating it. A white orb charged steadily as Dark Pixel's blast came closer, "This is for everything you've done! To me, my family, friends, and everyone else you've ever affected! Time for you to go to sleep once and for all!"

The beast head began to shift as it gained a more draconic look to it. Its eyes blazed with white fire as the orb in its mouth seemed to shine bright enough to begin to illuminate the whole network they were in.

"GIGA..."

Dark Pixel's eyes widened. That wasn't possible...were the cybeasts actually syncing with her Holy Power! She had taken them over by force with her Dark Power but now...they seemed to be almost sharing it. As if all of them were pooling from the same source, unlike hers in which she relied on Pixel's power to help sustain her more than average levels of Dark Power.

"...BEAST..."

Kei and the rest of the Hikari family in addition to Serenade, Trace, and Strike, looked up high as a single small orb seemed to challenge the onslaught of Dark Power that was racing towards her.

"DO IT, PIXEL!" Stream yelled from his position as the other members began to join him in cheering her sister on.

"...BLAZER!"

The white orb fired...and drilled straight through Dark Pixel's attack, completely dispelling the attack as though it never happened, and the dark soul herself, **"GAAAHHHH!"** She yelled as the attack struck the ground and caused a massive explosion of light. to obliterate her. The dark soul had never had even a second's notice to even react to it. By the time the light faded and everyone could see the field, all that was left was Pixel.

Dark Pixel was deleted.

"I...I did it," Pixel said, slightly laughing before the navi lost consciousness and began a nose dive straight towards the ground.

* * *

It hadn't taken very long to discover that the navi had merely run almost completely out of energy after everything she had been through. Roll had been the one to catch her, although she had almost been knocked out herself with how fast Pixel had fallen. She had been pretty high up when she launched that last attack. Serenade had offered to let them stay in the network until Pixel was up, but Megaman and Roll had decided it would probably be a while before the young navi woke up and it would be better off just to take her home.

The dark skinned navi told them that they could come back at any time they wished and then mumbled something about this now forcing her to have to clean the place up, which Strike and Trace sighed at. It would only mean more work for them since Mom would spend forever deciding what to do. Once again, the two navis had apologized for the trouble they had caused and had even offered to help them with anything they needed should something ever come up as some kind of repayment for it. The Hikaris merely told them not to worry about it, besides it sounded like they had there work cut out for them as they did already.

"Imagine how big she is and I still had to carry her home," Megaman said as he put Pixel down on the floor of her room. The navi moved slightly, but only really to curl up into a ball of sorts as she continued sleeping. For once, she actually looked like nothing was bothering her. And that was something that both parents had missed seeing.

Roll laughed behind him, "Seems like ages ago when last I saw that." She reminisced as she looked at her daughter, "She finally did it though. She's finally back to her old self again."

"Yeah, maybe now everything will finally simmer down," the blue navi said as the two left the sleeping navi's room and activated her cube.

Roll shook her head, "Hub, I thought you realized that nothing ever simmers down." She laughed.

The blue navi chuckled, "That's true. There's always something going on."

Suddenly, he noticed that Roll was giving him a playful smirk, "What? I have something on my face or something?"

"Oh nothing. I was just thinking that the next big event may be you being over protective!" Roll giggled to herself as Megaman looked at her confused. Roll smirked, "All I'm going to say is that our daughter may get herself a boyfriend sometime in the future."

"We just got Pixel back and you're already trying to set her up with boys?" Megaman said, though he was more upset about the later half of the statement.

Roll shrugged, "I wasn't talking immediately. Besides, I wouldn't have been thinking about it if Serenade hadn't put the thought in my head."

"Wait? Serenade? But then that means….excuse me for a second." the blue navi said, suddenly heading off for the link to the Net.

"Hub, you can't kill Strike." Roll said as she grabbed his hand and dragged him back to their room. She wasn't going to have to deal with another battle tonight. The first one had almost made her "heart" stop; she wasn't having another thing to be worried about tonight.

"As far as I remember, you're the only one who promised not to kill anyone," he retorted although he did seem to consent to not leaving...for now.

Roll sighed exasperatedly, "He hasn't even asked her out yet! And I'm pretty sure that Serenade and Trace will make sure that he doesn't try anything idiotic!"

"Don't care. If he even comes in ACDC Area 1, I'm sending him back home the hard way." Megaman stated.

"Hub, give it a chance. It's not going to happen anytime soon. I was just saying that it _might_ later in life. For now, let's just enjoy the fact that Pixel's back. I know, we should have a party for her!" Roll said excitedly.

Megaman raised an eyebrow, "You remember how the last party we threw for her went?"

Roll put a finger to her chin, "Yeah you're right. Guess we'll just have to set up more places in this network for Net battles."

The blue navi laughed, "I love you."

"I love you too, Hub," Roll smiled as she pecked him on the cheek and the two returned to their room.

* * *

**Megaman Double Network Epilogues: Complete**

**Going To The Zoo**

**Santa's Helper**

**Where Do Navis Come From?**

**Are You A Bunny?**

**Handful**

**Undernet Coffee**

**Soul Awakening**

**Soul Eclipse**

Ghost: And that's the end of that. I know when I originally had this idea, it was a bit more balance between all the Hikari twins. But stories have a way of doing what they want and you sometimes just have to listen to them. I had planned for this story to be 10 chapters and either by the chapters just not fitting in after or me just realizing they sucked, it went down to 6. It was funny, I started the epilogue series mainly to give a spotlight on Stream (and after a challenge from a certain someone who I sorta completed the request) and Pixel ended up stealing the show. Well, I guess that's it. It's been a blast! Ghost501 logging out!


End file.
